Thursday, June 10, 2010

It’s amazing what a difference friends can make. When I returned from my recent trip to Florida, my youngest daughter asked if it had gone better than Atlantic City a month earlier. I assured it had, and that my friends, aware of all that had happened to me on the Atlantic City trip, had rallied round me, made me feel safe and, indeed, kept me from harm. My daughter listened patiently as I told how kind my friends had been, and then she paused before sighing and saying, “Friends…that’s what they’re for.”

I couldn’t more!!!

And then yesterday, I received an email from one of those friends who reached out an olive branch of friendship, knowing that some of the things I’ll have to go through over the next few weeks will be quite difficult to get through. Reading her words, my eyes teared up, and I had to blink several times before I could finish reading her message.

Along the lines of what my daughter had said, my friend’s email couldn’t have come at a better time. She knows me well and knows how, like her, I hesitate to reach out for help, feeling that I’m imposing on a friendship. Her well-timed email came right when it was needed.

I’d just been wondering how I was to get through the next few weeks, and then I clicked on her message. It’s amazing how if we get out of our own way events have a way of falling into alignment. And friends…they’re a huge part of that equation.