Amistad

Hello www, May you feel the presence of God each and every day in your life. If you are going through a hard time know that the Lord Your God is with you every step of the way. Continue to stay faithful and prayerful. God keeps His promises. In Jesus Name, Amen. Friendships are difficult to steer sometimes. I was reminded of this recently when a friend of mine, Georgina, had to break off an unhealthy friendship. It was difficult for Georgina to end this friendship, but what made it easier to do was the fact that the 'friend', Maureen, was rude and began name-calling other people in Georgina's life. I remember when the days of friendship were easy: when I was little and in elementary school, when my parents were going to visit friends, I asked, "Do they have kids?" If they did, I was so happy! If they didn't, I knew I was in for a boring time. Kids just want to be around other kids. They don't care if those kids are older, younger, black, white, as long as there are kids. Kids knew their math: kids plus other kids =ed fun. Then, in high school, 'clicks' formed. The preppy rich kids. The druggies, aka 'rock and rollers.' The jocks. Kickers. (aka country/western) Nerds. The list is long and varied. Divisions were made and tricky to navigate. We make friends in adulthood based on mutual interests, or lack of mutual intersts sometimes, thinking we can grow and learn from people different from us. We form bonds with people who 'get us,' but most of all, we are friends with people who don't mind, and like us in spite of, our 'crazies'. Our crazies being our eccentric habits and ideas. I was fortunate to have a group of good friends celebrate my bday with me. As they sang - out of tune - but loudly and lovingly - happy birthday to me, I made sure I looked around the people surrounding me and thanked God in my mind for each and every one of them and how they've touched and enriched my life. I can only hope they feel the same way about me. I know I've discussed in a past blog how men and women can't be friends and I need to clarify my thinking on this, once again, because the subject surfaced at my bday party: Men and women can be friends. Indeed, I am friends with men. HOWEVER, and this is the caveat I meant to express when I mentioned this earlier, I have observed that when men and women are friends either the man or the woman have ideas of becoming 'more than friends' with that person. Nothing wrong with this thinking until the edges of their friendships are pushed: the man or the woman start dating and want to tell you all about those dates. YIKES. Oh well, sit back and get comfortable, the friendship will endure and in the end you'll get a better idea of the person you are calling friend. Knowledge is power, remember. Friendships can and are hard to maintain, but if you are blessed to call even one person a good friend, then consider yourself truly blessed. Those friendships are worth all the gold in the world, and then some. God blessssssssssssssssssss you!