make new friends, but keep the old...

One is silver and the other gold. I remember this song from Girl Scouts and it seems appropriate today as I'm thinking a lot about friends and what they mean. With 40 running up on me faster than I would like, I've noticed how much harder it gets to make friends as we get older. Not acquaintances but true friends...the kind that you can invite over for dinner without cleaning your house first. Not sure why it gets tougher -- maybe we're just not as open to new people or maybe we're too busy with work and family to really invest in cultivating new friendships. But in thinking aobut the next few weeks and all that I have planned, I've noticed that the friends I'm spending a lot of time with this summer are those I've had for years, even decades. We may drift apart for a time, but we always seem to find our way back to each other. There's something about our history that binds us together. We may not have as much in common anymore but these are the women who know the real me and not just the representative I present to the world. They've seen me at my best and at my worst and when I'm in crisis, these are the women I turn to for understanding and support. When I got married, I picked three women to stand beside me and I remember thinking then that these were the ones I would know forever. When I'm 80, these are the ones who will be tearing it up with me at the bingo parlor. And I was right...we've since moved in different directions and I don't see any of them as much as I would like but I can still pick up the phone and there's never an uncomfortable silence. We still have plenty to talk about and plenty to share. And I'm grateful for them every day.