Friends

Friends are a blessing we are privileged to enjoy in our life.  I have, over the years been blessed with some very special friends.   And although some have gone, others have come into my life.  Some live close by and I see regularly, some live a distance away and our times together are cherished, and some I have never met in person, yet their compassion and wisdom are treasured.

This week has been special, thanks to the generosity of those friends.  In my last post I alluded to my fiber art group, FAB……Over the last 2 years these women have become dear friends.  The kind of friends you know you can count on to be there, to encourage, to laugh with you and to cry with you, to push you when you need pushed, and to give you a soft place to land when you fall………special friends.

Each year we exchange gifts at the holidays from a name drawing we do in the summer, this year I was gifted by Grace with a handmade journal.  I wonder if she knows how much I treasure this gift?  I remember the day we were shopping and she was questioning me on my preferences of brands of different papers…..lol……yep, that’s my dear friend Grace, she knew what she was doing, even though I was clueless. Although I admit to wondering why she was so curious about brands and weights of watercolor papers!  LOL

This is the journal she gifted me with, isn’t it wonderful!!!

And details of the journal (love the circles Grace!)

And the papers inside:

I have yet to make a mark in this journal, but I promise I will use it.  Right now I am still in the process of admiring it (and touching it daily….I am a tactile person!).

Another friend of mine, who I met online and was lucky enough to meet in person and now consider one of my dearest friends, sent me a gift this week.  I am always amazed at what she hears when we talk.  This particular friend has a gift of getting to the heart of the issue, reading between the lines, and then helping in her way…..be that advice, a ready ear, or something to make the job easier.  And a while ago I was struggling with photographing a quilt for a show submission….really struggling….the quilt was black and white and shades of gray…..with lots of details that weren’t showing up.  This week I received a package containing this:

Little did she know, this book has been on my “I have to get it” list since before it was published, but I just wasn’t able to get it.

Today I will attend the wedding of another dear friend’s only daughter.  I am grateful to be invited to this momentous event.  I will laugh with my friend, cry with her should she cry, and cherish her joy at seeing her only daughter take this step in life.

Then I will come home, check in with a few online friends who are having struggles during this season…..and finally tonight, sit down with a cup of tea and be grateful for the blessings of friends.  I only hope that I can be as good of a friend as the friends I have been blessed to know in my lifetime.

When I was a child I was told 2 things….one is that you are lucky if you can count the number of true friends you have and use all the fingers in one hand….and that in order to have a friend, you must be a friend.  I am lucky to be able to fulfill the first, and hope that I can live up to the second.