Friends for the Journey

Every year I gain a bit of wisdom about how I spend my precious Christmas money. This year I used it to buy two fun travel mugs I had had my eye on for a long time (anything to get this chronically dehydrated nursing mama to drink), a sweet beanie crocheted by a Somalian woman in my mother's sewing group, and then most importantly I bolstered my Madeleine L'Engle library with three new acquisitions; The Small Rain, Friends for the Journey, and Weather of the Heart. If you have never read her work go straight to Amazon and make an investment because these are not library type books that you read once and return able to check them off of your list. These are books to savor, to return to, to copy into journals, letters. 

    The first I have opened is Friends for the Journey; Two extraordinary women celebrate friendships made and sustained through the seasons of life. Long title but descriptive of something I long for. Once married it can be so easy to rely on that best of friendships to sustain us alone. Yet, that's not fair for either spouse. Living a rather transient lifestyle for the past nearly ten years now (I haven't settled in one place for more than 18 months) I recognize the difficulty in sustaining friendships through the seasons of life. I have let so many dear friends slip away as I prioritize again and again for the immediate; the demands of life that stand up and shout. As a young mom I often feel I am merely keeping my nose above water, and don't put enough committed energy into nurturing lifesaving relationships. So, to those of you that may describe I apologize. (Let's reconnect!)
    Ben laughed when he looked over my shoulder the other night and saw me doing something uncharacteristic - writing a list of New Year's resolutions. I know, I know, evidence is against them often truly changing people but somehow the very act of sitting and figuring out what I would like to change, where I would like to grow given the opportunity, was centering in and of itself. Two of the items on my list had to do with this topic of friendship. One was to simply write back and forth monthly with my close friends. The other was merely to relearn how to be a good friend. So, here's to 2011 and the strengthening of old friendships and the building of new ones!