Sharing the Human Spirit Through Friendship

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It started with an “out of the blue” text message. “Hi, Jenny, is this still your number?”

It was Jen, my friend and former colleague. We had fallen out of touch over time. Nothing intentional, just life! But I’ve certainly missed her during the past 7 years since we’d been in contact, and I especially missed our hikes together in the beautiful Wasatch Mountains. (We were perfect Hiking Buddies … both stopping (often!) to take pictures of the beauty surrounding us … both always hoping to see a moose (as we sometimes did) … and both finding mind, body and spirit nourished and uplifted by Mother Nature.

So, it was SUCH a nice surprise to receive Jen’s message. And it was wonderful to reconnect over the weekend … driving up the canyon for a picnic and a walk around Silver Lake.

The 7 years faded quickly away … almost nonexistent (though MUCH has changed in our world since March of 2015)! We didn’t miss a beat and picked up right where we left off. Updates on our kids (now all adults!), our personal and professional lives, our concerns for the future we are leaving our children, and the shared delight in the 9 baby ducklings being carefully shepherded by their Mama Duck. We talked until well after it was super dark, and were rewarded by a brilliant night sky filled with sparkling stars.

And that reminds me of a lovely quote: “Good friends are like stars. You don’t always see them, but you know they’re always there.” [Unknown]

SHARING THE HUMAN SPIRIT THROUGH FRIENDSHIP.

I didn’t realize at the time that Saturday was #InternationalDayOfFriendship, as “proclaimed in 2011 by the United Nations General Assembly with the idea that friendship between peoples, countries, cultures and individuals can inspire peace efforts and build bridges between communities.”

AMEN, and more of THAT, please!
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“Kindness is a passport that opens doors and fashions friends. It softens hearts and molds relationships that can last lifetimes.” [Joseph B. Wirthlin]

I am so #Grateful for friendships, in all their different forms! Life-long friends … new friends … re-connected friends … colleagues that became friends, and friends that became colleagues … my #LinkedIn friends around the world who inspire me … my friends in the various communities I am blessed to belong to … for family members that have become friends, and friends that have become like family ... and the #Friends I’ve YET to meet!

Since I LOVE a good quote, I’ll close with a couple of fun ones … both by someone named Anonymous (who seems to say a LOT of clever and wise things)!
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“We’ve been friends for so long I can’t remember which one of us is the bad influence.”
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“There’s nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.”

If CHOCOLATE is the criteria, then the “bad influence” is likely me.

THANKS, JEN, for reaching out! Thinking now about who I'LL reach out to this week to reconnect with a friend or two ...?