Monday, October 3, 2011

Forever Friends

I have a nine year old daughter so I hear, "She's my BFF!" quite often. At that age, a BFF could last years or about 15 minutes. I just spent the weekend with my proven BFFs or I prefer my Forever Friends mostly because BFF is my nine year old's term. About once a year this group of 8 women get together somewhere. We've been to the mountains of NC to the FL beaches, this year it was a great house on Tybee Island, GA (west of Savannah). We are scattered from Cleveland to almost Miami and six spots in between. We have 23 children between all of us ranging from 21 to 3. We are Forever Friends.


We have seen each other at a highest high and our lowest lows and still love each other with everything we have. We are always there for each other, unconditionally and without judgement. The best part is that we have been friends since we were 4 in some cases and all since elementary school. We can call each other out when full of it and aren't afraid to say so. We've shared many a boyfriends (with Doug as the winner for kissing the greatest number of us), and share a loathing for those that really hurt us. We feel things as a group. We are there for each other with the great I'M PREGNANT kind of news and the sad "my mom passed" away kind of news. We remember each others birthdays and know how old we are and enjoy it.


We can talk honestly about the crappy parts of getting older and relish in the wisdom and focus you gained by aging. We don't have to explain when we mention a sybling because we know them all, as well as favorite friends and old roommates from our past. OK, some of us have really bad memory not from aging, just from having really bad memory and we know that too! So we help keep our history accurate (for the most part) Bringing packets of old lets we wrote to you at camp in 7th grade helps to keep our memories sharp as well!


I guess all of that is to say, treasure your history and make the effort with your valued friends. They are priceless and you will never be able to make them again. Not this in depth and knowledgeable anyway. We all have busy lives and forget sometimes to call on a birthday, but we know we are forgiven and will tell them the next time we see them with an extra special hug and an offer to "do" our hair for the evening.


Here are my forever friends, go call yours, or even better find an old note about how much you LOVED Scott and couldn't believe that he liked Casey instead and remember why they will ALWAYS be in  your life and your heart.