Girlfriends

I know that girlfriends was God's idea. I have just spent five whole glorious days with two close friends. We have sons the same ages. Our boys played high school football together. We shared moments of anxiety over sports injuries, teenage romances, college choices, and later danced at their weddings. Now we share information about their careers. Our sons now live with their wives in our same small hometown they knew as teenagers. Together, we celebrate them and the amazing young men that they are.

For five days, we have reflected on the phases of life. We laughed together, rode bikes, swam in pools, and enjoyed our friendship. Sally Clarkson expresses it much more eloquently than I can in her blog (www.wholeheart.typepad.com) in her posting, "I take joy; I need friends." As I get older, I find that the things we look for in others are so rich and wonderful. We have learned to cherish our parents, both those left and those who have passed on. We encourage one another. We push for physical fitness and optimistic outlooks. We hold hands and pray, and mean every word of it.

One morning, two of us were riding our bikes and we stopped by a gift shop. In it I came across a notepad with the following quote across the bottom: "Cherish the little things, because one day you realize the little things really were the big things." We shared a moment when I gave them each a notepad. With tears in our eyes, we agreed that this celebration of friendship was one of the "little things" that we will cherish.