Did you know that today is National Friendship Day? Sunday August 4th is set aside this year to honor those who make such a difference in our lives. My friends are my treasures and I hold them close to my heart. I have been blessed to have some who I have known since childhood and those who enter my world each day. They are indispensable and I can’t imagine my life without them. Hard to imagine a time when I didn’t know some of them; it’s like they have always been there and some, I KNOW have been in my life for eons.

This holiday came into being in 1935, when Congress dedicated the first Sunday of August to honor friendship. Since then, the idea has spread all over the world, with countries like India also dedicating their August’s first Sunday to friends.

In 1997, the United Nations named Winnie, the Pooh, as the world’s Ambassador of Friendship. I would believe that since he is a cuddly dude, which  is a quality I welcome in those in my inner circle.

In 2011, the United Nations officially designated July 30th as International Friendship Day. Parts of South America and South Asia celebrate the day, but many still stick to the first Sunday of August.

Despite current technology and social media, a study conducted in 2011 by a professor from Cornell  University indicated that most people report that they only have two close friends. Hard to imagine only allowing two people in that close. I remember sitting in the presence of a patient I was working with in the psych hospital where I was a social worker. This person was feeling bereft and shared “Everyone I loved is gone. I have no one in my life.” I reminded him “Everyone you loved was once a stranger. Do you believe that those you had were the only people you will ever know? There is a whole world of people out there just waiting to know you.” So many lonely folks feel the way this man did.

I make friends every day, because I set intention to do so. I have made friends in supermarket check out lines, in bathrooms while washing my hands, in the gym, in a mechanic shop while my car was getting serviced, in yoga class, on the job, and in drumming circles. There are some cyber friends who I may never meet face to face, but certainly have connected heart to heart. Although we play various roles in each other’s lives, those I honor most are the ones with whom I can laugh and cry with equal ease, truly and genuinely peeling off layers to reveal the whole of who I am. I would like to think they feel the same. Some have kept me ‘sane and vertical’ over the years. All see in me what I sometimes can’t see in myself. See why I value them?

In case you wondered how to acknowledge the relationships you treasure in various languages, here is a primer: