Friends for Life

Some days are just too much to blog. On Wednesday, I was in a no-good-reason funk, and I didn't have anything constructive to say. So I followed our mamas' rule and didn't say anything at all. And that's all I have to say about that.

It's so funny, because lots of mornings I wake up and have bloggers block and yet there is a world of things to write about.

A small group of us at our church meet together once a month to talk about writing and speaking. It's actually turned into mostly a writing group, and it's a gathering that I treasure. We're women of different decades and backgrounds, but once a month our hearts are joined by a common thread.

As we talked about our life stories last night, my friend Ann would say, "You could blog about that." or "That's a story you should tell." She was such an encouragement to me, and it was a reminder that often it's our every day life that speaks with the most eloquence. Here's a little slice of life that she encouraged me to tell:

You all know that I've been on a kick of thinking about friendships. In the last few weeks, I've been thinking a lot about my friend Josie. She was my best friend from fourth grade on. She was the friend that made me laugh until we rolled on the floor. She was the friend who heard all my secrets. Josie was the friend who got incorporated into my family like I was incorporated into hers.

I have an absolutely terrible memory, but I've been trying to think of Josie stories. The one that I remember best is our friendship contract. Josie and I wrote a I-will-be-your-friend-to-the-end-of-our-lives-amen contract. We folded it up really small to fit into a tiny box that we hid in a secret place in my desk.

Josie is one of those friends that still resides in a big section of my heart even though we're only loosely in touch today. I love her and her place in my life. Got any friends or friendship memories like that?