A Post About Friends.

For the past several years, we have always hosted a little NOT back to school party on Labor Day because, really, we don't go back to school.  Around here we always have school.  To me, I can't see the point of taking the entire summer off and then spending weeks just trying to remember where we'd left off back in June.  Also, wouldn't you rather take a bit of time off in the Fall when the weather is still nice and the apples need to be picked?  Or at Christmas time when there are so many great traditions and memories to be experienced.  Or maybe a week off in the spring when the daffodils start blooming and you really need to get your hands in the dirt again.  We like to spread our breaks out over the course of the entire year.

But I digress.  Our school schedule is not what this post is about.  This post is about friends.

Friend:  a person whom one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection.  Dwell on the definition for a moment.

So getting back to the subject of our party....
There almost wasn't a party this year.  I wasn't really up for it, both emotionally and practically.  I didn't have anything to contribute to a meal and I certainly didn't want to make a trip to the grocery store on Labor Day.  But the kids were relentless, as kids can be, and sent out a few last-minute texts and created an impromptu end-of-the-summer party.  The guest list was very limited.

Later on as I sat around my decrepit old picnic table, the cool breeze of a late summer evening rustling the leaves above me and the slightly chaotic rumble of many voices caught up in many conversations surrounding me, I was overcome by the comfortable feeling of contentment.  Simple, easy, living-in-the-moment contentment.  And what made it all so perfectly lovely was the company.  A company of friends.

Friends can be people you've known only a short amount of time or people you've known practically your entire life.  Friends can be members of your family or someone who is unrelated.  Friends can be both old and young, male or female.  Wealth, or lack thereof, does not determine friendship.  Friends do not have to share the same ideas and life goals.  Friends can have vastly different lives even.

As I looked around, it occurred to me that each person sitting at my table was my friend in the truest definition of the word.  Not only did we share that bond of mutual affection, we also were willing to help shoulder each other's burdens.  And in that moment, just for that one moment, I felt safe and understood and valued.

When I reflect on the past many months I am reminded, over and over again, of the people who have shown my family true friendship.  People who have stopped by unannounced.  Those who have sent letters.  People who have offered support and people who have stepped in and helped guide my kids. There are so many other examples of similar kindness, but all of these things share one major theme.  And that theme is friendship.

For that I am most thankful.