I've got friends in low places!

Tomorrow is the 1st anniversary of my Mothers death.  It's a pretty low spot in my life. Having never experienced this stage of grief when it comes to someone so near and dear to me it's all a new ride.  Well for the last month and a half I've been tearing up at the drop of a hat, well to be honest, sometimes for no apparent reason at all.  Now, I've said that this is a blog about positive things and it is.  What makes me able to get through this time in my life is my family and friends.  While family is pretty constant, at least for me, friends do not need to be.  However,  I have been blessed with some great ones.

I have two who are such old friends that they remember me when I was young and wiry.  We have been through thick and thin together;  Boyfriends found and lost, fights with parents and with each other, marriages embarked upon and then later dissolved, children born and children lost.  We all know that we can call each other at the drop of hat and while we aren't close by miles, we are close at heart.  We still listen to each other and encourage one another.

I have two friends that I met in college that are awesome.  One became my sister-in-law because we married brothers.  While there was a rough patch for a few years after the divorce I never lost my love for her.  The other, while far away, has always been around when I needed her, somehow knowing I needed her even when we hadn't been in contact for a while.

I have two excellent friends that I met while living in Texas.  Again they live far across the United States.  We're tight even though we live thousands of miles from one another.  I talk to one every chance we get.  She's a nurse practitioner at Duke University Hospital though and she works crazy mad hours.  The other I consider my closest friend on earth.  We talk a few times a week usually and we share nearly everything.  Our children stair step one another in age and in gender and we have joked about them marrying each other.  She is my children's God Mother and I am her children's God Mother.

Now I am blessed enough to have two more friends with whom I'm becoming close.  I decided a while ago that I needed to foster some friendships in town.  I love all my friends but all my closest friends live far away.  Isn't that an oxymoron?  I decided that I needed some friends here.  By friends I don't just mean people you lunch with, don't get me wrong, I like all the friends and aquiantances I have in town. I am looking for the type of friends that you can call up when you're still in your p.j.'s and go have coffee with them at their house, or have them to yours.  I want women with whom I can bond, women who will talk and listen about family matters, women with whom I can speak frankly, women who will be there for each other.  I think I've found them!  

One is so incredibly sweet and down to earth.  She's fun and knowledgeable.  The other is absolutely hilarious.  She has got a response to everything, and every time it's one of those thoughts that makes you laugh out loud.  Occasionally she makes us laugh to the point we might wet our pants.  Having had 11 children between the 3 of us that wouldn't be difficult.  While both these ladies are fun, smart and sweet the thing that binds me to them is that in a pinch we would each be there for one another and that is a true friend.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere."  I believe I have found that again with two more beautiful ladies.