"Sunday Thanks": Lasting Friendships

This week, I was encouraged by the presence of friends in my life, and when I reflected on these friendships a little further, I realized that I am blessed by lasting friendships. These friendships don't necessarily need to be old to be lasting (though I am so proud to still be friends with many of my childhood playmates). To me, what makes a friendship "lasting" is it's ability to withstand the passage of time.

I started my second semester of graduate school (can you believe it?!) this week and many of my classes overlapped into this new semester. My Macro Practice course meets on Friday afternoons and I have a great little group of girls I sit with in class. We all also have class together in the morning, but it is a lecture set-up, so we don't really get to sit together. At any rate, we hadn't talked to each other at all over the break, but on Friday we jumped right back into our relationship. We all could appreciate that the break was busy and that, even though we exchanged phone numbers so that we could get together, it just didn't work out. I don't know how these women will continue to be in my life--maybe they will just be school friends--but their friendship is one that withstood the test of time and absence from one another and was still able to pick up where we left off.

On Friday afternoon I picked up Murd (Erin), one of my best friends from high school who came to visit for the weekend. As I drove to the train station to pick her up off the bus, I was again struck by the awesomeness of another lasting friendship! We probably only talk every one to two months (she's in grad school too, and working full-time!), and I don't know when the last time I saw her was, but I know I can count on her friendship. And, we have a great time together whenever we do see each other! There is no other way to tell you than to say that I am blessed that I have quite a few friends like Murd from high school and college.

As much as I have tried to simplify and slow down my life, it is hard to make time for all of my friends on a weekly (or even monthly) basis. So today, I am thankful for those friends who "get it" and still value our friendship even when we are busy and go months without talking or seeing each other. These "lasting friendships" sustain me and I don't know where I would be without them!