Thank You For Being a Friend

This year I bought a dayplanner which houses the days of an individual week on one page and a thoughtful saying or quote on the other. I bought a similar one last year and all year long those cute sayings and images were reminders to me: to enjoy the moment, to be grateful, to allow myself to feel blessed, to laugh...and to cry, sometimes.

The quote for this week is one of those reminders. It's from Ben Johnson, who wrote, "True friendship consists not in the multitude of friends, but in their worth and value."

I love this saying for a few reasons: first, because true friends really are worth their weight in gold. And should be enjoyed and pampered and told that from time to time. And, second, because in our online age it's easy to strike up surfac-y friendships on social networks...and to have those friendships blow up for one reason or another - usually by misunderstanding. And, third, because our online world can bring us back into contact with friends we thought were long lost, only to find we were all just waiting to find that connection again.

Over the holidays my family went back to my hometown and I was able to reconnect with one of those friends. When we were kids we entertained ourselves through church services together, giggled our way through truly bad movies and rolled our eyes together when our camp counselors got waaaaaaaaaaaay to excited about morning calesthenics (who goes to camp to do sit ups at 5 in the morning?!? Not us). And even though we hadn't seen one another - in person - in too many years to really say out loud, it was like going back in time. We giggled about significant others, got a little emotional about our kids and rolled our eyes at some of our co-workers antics.

So, to my real world friends and on my online friends and my reconnected friends, a big shout-out and a hug and a hearty, "Hello!". I love you. All.

What are you thankful for today?