....bff

In every one's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. ~Albert Schweitzer


A few years ago I had a friend whom I loved dearly...we were very close for a few years.....suddenly, life got in the way and between college, moves, marriages, babies the distance grew and soon we lost touch.

I missed her. And I began to look for her. I spent hours on the internet looking for her, even driving senselessly to her hometown to see if I could find her (I had not idea where she had lived-so it was a crazy thing to do).

Years passed, then suddenly- she reached out to me. She had found me via my website. Wow! What a gift! As Henry Wadsworth Longfellow stated: Ah, how good it feels! The hand of an old friend.

Yesterday, we were discussing the fact that so many years passed with us not being in touch... my friend said: maybe we would have been like Thelma & Louise and driven our car over the edge! Ha! Indeed...maybe. Both of us have been through a lot these last few years...but I am grateful we have found each other now...and I plan not to ever lose touch with her again!
Now that I am older, I understand much clearer the fact that friendships need to be nurtured.

What kind of things can we do to nurture a friendship?

*Remember your friend's birthday with a card or flowers-and make sure to call him/her on the special day (facebook is great to help you remember birthdays!)
*Send a postcard for no particular reason.
*Call or visit during the holidays.
*Acknowledge other milestones: promotions at work, graduations, children’s birthdays.
*Don’t allow a month to go by without any contact-if you are busy you can drop an email or a message on Facebook.
*When you get together make sure to spend a few hours alone-away from boyfriends, husbands, kids...just the two of you.
*Don’t just talk about getting together. Mark you calendar.

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art...
they have no survival value;
rather they give value to survival."
- C. S. Lewis