Filled with gratitude this morning for one of the greatest gifts in this or any lifetime…..friendship. I have always been blessed with sweet and supportive souls who mostly get my quirky ways of being and my sometimes outrageous and colorful world view. My parents modeled long time friendships with people, since their early 20’s and they continued to grow new friendships until the day they each died into the mid-eighth decade.  They taught my sister and me to reach out and be inclusive, to cultivate kindness and to play nicely in the sandbox. They taught us to share our toys. They taught us not to hit or push. They taught us to forgive slights. They taught us to stand up for ourselves appropriately. All of these skills serve me well in my current relationships and those who come into my life regularly.

One of the things that I felt sad about as I heard a client say a few years ago : “Everyone in my life is gone and I’m all alone.” I asked him if he believed that everyone he had known were the only ones he would ever know. He nodded. I reminded him that everyone he knew and loved was once a stranger and that there was a whole world full of people with whom he could connect. The issue isn’t a lack of people, it may be a lack of willingness to reach out to them or allow them to reach in. I encouraged him to think of the type of folks he wanted to attract and then we brainstormed ways he could meet them.

I set intention daily to make new friends, and each day I do. Some are face to face via attending events, through networking, fun activities and with friends who are yentas (Yiddish for matchmaker) and want to introduce mutual friends to each other. I have parties to which I invite friends from what I call overlapping soul circles and take great delight as they interact with each other, finding common threads. There are kindred spirits everywhere, just waiting for the moment when you arrive on each other’s stages.

My appreciation is boundless, as friends; those in my face to face world and those via Social Media have boosted me, buoyed me and embraced me through the health ride I have been on for the past year. We are all so interconnected. We are family of choice.  Not sure how I would have gotten through various pivotal points without them. It is human nature to want to unite and not isolate. I encourage you to dare to make a new friend today.

“There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.”
― Linda Grayson

Thank you for being a friend.