girlfriends...what a love we share!

(I've been playing with photoshop and my old keepsakes--from the "big hair" days!!  Love you, Myrn!!)

It's a miraculous thing, you know, this love between girlfriends.  I've been thinking about you lately (EACH of you) --wishing we could have some crazy long hours alone together to talk and laugh and cry and share our hearts till 2:00 in the morning.  Oh, the days we could do that!! So many of you have loved me long...and hard...and faithful.  You have walked "five hundred miles" with me and I KNOW you will never stop.  What a rare and priceless treasure is friendship like this. 

You have chosen to look past my failures and YOU ADORE ME.  How can that be?  I am safe with you.  You always see and believe my heart and my good intentions.  I don't have to explain myself.  Your love for me is fierce and strong and warm.  You are a soft place to land when I fall--- and I do, a lot.  You are a refuge in life's torrential downpours....and so much prettier than umbrellas. (I never did like umbrellas.)

I love the way we really know each other.  With just one look we know that now is not a good time to talk, or that we better get talking, now!  Of course, talking isn't usually necessary because we somehow just get it.  We can read it in each other's eyes.  When we're apart (in distance and/or in time) all it takes is a certain tone of voice over the phone and we know that we've got to get there, right now!  And we do -- even if it's physically impossible, we find way to be there somehow.

This love we share DOES impose.  It does ask for help. It does LEAN - hard sometimes.  I know I can call you and say "do you still love me?" and you always know what I'm really asking: "am I still loveable?"  And of course, I know you will say "YES!!" and you'll say it in a hundred ways.  You'll say it just the way I need to hear it in that moment.  You'll find that perfect way you have of reminding me who I am and what my gift is to this world.  That's what you think I am - a gift!   And......I'll believe you.  I'll soak up your love and faith in me till I'm full again, and courageous enough to spill love out to others again.  

And the ugliness (inside or out).....you never notice, or if you do, you look right past it.  Make-up or au natural, sweet or not, you always see the good, the lovely, the funny, the strength, the beauty.  How do you always manage to see the beauty in me, especially when I can't see it myself? 

You are girlfriends.  You laugh and cry, dream and hope, trust and obey (and sometimes rebel) with me.  You remember where we've come from........oh, such a long way.  You've witnessed the way I've fumbled through life's uncharted territories (we still do it together) -- with me swearing AND praying, sometimes in the same breath.  And it's okay, because I've never had to impress you or try to be someone I'm not. Thank you for letting me be me.  Thank you for helping me be a better version of me because you won't let me stay the same.  You stretch and push me.  I love that. I LOVE YOU!

Thank you for loving me through the risks I insist on taking. You've even watched me take a few too many - because I wouldn't listen.  It's that wild side of me that will always be my "thorn in the flesh" or my shining beauty, depending on the day. But you LOVE me anyway.

All the joys, sorrows, tear-gushing laughs, questions, pains, heart breaks, thanksgivings........you've been there to share it all with me.  You know me.  You know that I love to twirl & dance in meadows, get dolled up for parties, never take my makeup off at night and always wake with my eyes smudged black, LOVE nature and art and poetry, I'm a romantic at heart, I wear my heart on my sleeve, I can't resist going anywhere that says "no trespassing"..........you know my weird quirks and fabulously wonderful qualities :)  YOU KNOW ME.  What a wonderful thing it is to be known and loved.  THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

My mom used to say "to have a friend, be a friend."  Well, I must have done something right because YOU -- MY GIRLFRIENDS-- are my wealth and my treasure.  You never cease to amaze me with your beauty.  True, deep beauty.  You warm my heart with your smiles, laughs, insights and presence.  You truly reflect the love of God in my life...over and over again.  You are imperfect perfection!  (thank goodness....otherwise "I might have to hate you!")

I once wrote a line in a song that makes me think of you: "if I could take a thousand stars and place them in your arms...."   Do you know that there is no bouquet of flowers (or stars) that would ever express the gratitude I have for YOU?  You are JOY to me.  I will cherish you FOREVER.  And I promise-- even "pinky swear" (for those of you that go back far enough) that I will stand by your side and love you the best way I know how.  Forever.

Thank you.  A million X a million.  
(love, 1/2 x m+m, 44/45 = forever!!)  

THOU!!