Day 412: To friendship

Allow me a mushy post today, I am in a sentimental mood. This one doesn't have all that much to do with Maddie, apart from the fact that I hope she is one day as lucky as I am.

When I was younger, in highschool and beyond, I don't think I really appreciated the importance of girlfriends. The girls with whom you can cry, tell secrets, admit defeats and embarassments, celebrate accomplishments, get good and drunk. The girls you absolutely have to talk to every single day, and those you can go a month without talking to and pick up right where you left off.

Like so many other things in life - tight rolled jeans and the social smoking phase, for example - friends tend to come and go. But if we're lucky, the good ones manage to overlook our flaws and stick around. They ingore the fact that I never answer my cell phone and only check messages once a week; they don't mind that I talk endlessly about my baby; they seem okay with the fact that I can hold on too tightly and expect too much; they find my strengths amid the weaknesses. And so I find myself now in my thirties (just barely into them, I'd like to add) with all of the good ones still just a phone call or email away.

Whether we're focussed on family or career, whether we're settled or searching, I think we all need those friends in our lives. The ones who can just raise an eyebrow at the right moment to send us into complete hysterics. The ones who, when life is too complicated, can somehow make sense of it all. The ones who always know exactly what we're thinking, or who can hear our most selfish, hidden thoughts without passing judgement. The ones who will lend us a new pair of shoes, a secret family recipe, a shoulder to cry on. Maybe they're all the same person, or maybe there is an entire circle. Either way, what would life be without them?

I have a wonderful husband, a sweet daughter, a great family. But there is no substitute for good girlfriends, and I am blessed to have so many. If I could add one more wish to the many I already have for Maddie, it is that she one day has a group of girls in her life as wonderful as the ones in mine.