Friends:

"I get by with a little help from my Friends" John Lennon

Friends. It conjures up all sorts of pictures in my mind.  I see kids playing kick ball together. I see ladies who lunch together. Ladies who shop together. I see one woman on the cell phone talking to her friend about something in the store and overhearing "So, I'm standing here and I see this really great shirt that is perfect with your hair color and it's in you size.  I can pick it up here and you can just pay me back later OK?"
Friends sew together, eat together, go for a walk together, go to a movie (girls night out) together, play sports together. Friends call each other to laugh, cry, share their lives.

"A good friend is hard to find, hard to lose, and impossible to forget..." Author Unknown

Friends do a lot for each other. They cheer you on if you are facing a test and you're scared. They take belly dancing classes with you so you will not look silly - alone at least.
Friends send you a card - snail mail - and maybe even make the card themselves.
Friends wake you up early, on your only day off, to share with you something exciting that happened to them and needed to share - with you!
Friends call you to lean on you because they know you will listen to them.
Friends will hold you accountable if they know you are on a diet - cheating with friends is not allowed.
Friends call you to tell you a joke - and then forget the punch line!! So you spend the next hour laughing about it.
Friends show up to clean your bathroom because you're too sick to do it.
Friends become family that you want to have in your life! You know you may be stuck with family, but your friends, you pick.
More importantly, friends become a witness. A witness to your life.  They have stories to tell about you - some are embarrassing, some are tender, some are funny but because they shared your life, they witness your life, they can remember all the parts of you that make you...you.

I am blessed to have such friends that have cared for me over the years. Some are still close by and others are far away but I love them all and many I am still in contact with.

I am doubly blesses to have married my best friend 40 + years ago. We are still best friends and amaze people that we still walk together, hand in hand. He loves me no matter what.

I have a friend who knows I love red in my kitchen and is part of the small group who gets together on Sunday night. One time we were studying the book of Hebrews and she made the ladies this to remind us all of our study.

"He-Brews" get it!  She has a weird and great sense of humor

Then recently she saw this pattern and thought of me and my love of dogs so she made me this one.

You might have to blow up the picture because it black with dog bones and paws against a black stove front

I really did get a call from another friend who can almost never remember the punch line of a joke and told me a joke which just made me roar. I'm not sure what was more funny, the punch line itself or the fact she remembered the punch line! We talked for hours!

I am blessed with a cousin who became a friend and she calls me early to share the remodel of her kitchen that is SO overdue.  

I also have a set of friends that have 4 feet!  They cuddle with me every day and share my hopes, dreams, and bed. They promise not to tell my secrets.

Sometime friends laugh together, sometimes they cry. Sometimes they eat together, sometime they cook together for others. No matter what, we witness each others' lives.  Tell me about your friend and what you witnessed together. 

We are all blessed.