Oil on my head.

Balm to my wounds.

Water to my thirsty soul.

  That is how it feels to have a dear friend with you for a few days, loving on your children and meeting your church family and seeing the places that make up your home.   Of course all of the other Iowa girls were dearly missed, but you know that there's something we could do about that, don't you?  Bahamas cruise reunion, anyone??


    I have found it comforting and cleansing and therapeutic to pour out my soul to her the entire time.   And I sincerely hope she isn't leaving with a migraine from all of my issues.  Ha.

I mean.....I should be a magazine, 'cuz I got ISSUES.

   We haven't always been the best of friends, but we have known each other for YEARS.  And over those years, while we have been through good times and hard, we have learned something.    Something deep and valuable and the kind of thing that can really only come about by seeing a person at their highest and their lowest.  We have learned to really KNOW each other.

   And not just in a "Hi, how are you? How are the kids" way, but in a "You know some of my greatest weaknesses, flaws, and my absolute Kryptonite, but you still see value and worth and potential in me" way.  It's the kind of friendship that goes deeper than gulping coffee and sharing fashion advice and magazines together, although we love to do those things as well.

  It is the kind of friendship that takes on a little extra shine as the years go by, because if I've learned one thing about relationships in all of my 28 years of life, it is this........

"You can't make old friends."

   And it's sad, but true.  You can't!  You can make new friends every where you go, for the rest of your life, in as vast a quantity as you can muster.  But you just can't make OLD friends.  That is why they are special.  That is why they are valuable.  And that is why they should be protected and nurtured and maintained.

   Unfortunately, I can kill a friendship ALMOST as fast as I can kill house plants, and that's really saying something.  It is one of my biggest regrets, one of my glaring weaknesses, and something about myself that I am trying desperately to change.  I like to think that I am making progress.

   I wrote about teaching my children to maintain friendships and you can read that by clicking here.....because I like to think that as awful as my track record has been in the past, I can learn from my mistakes and instill some better values in my daughters and encourage them to nurture their friendships.

    And so while I will readily admit I am basically the WORST at maintaining friendships, I am glad that this one has survived.  I am glad she has stuck around, and extended grace to me, and shown up, time and time again, to be a listening ear and a word of advice.  And that.......

.......that is what every friendship needs.

Hug a friend of yours today.