Amigos...

I have been thinking a lot about friends lately. You can't pick who you are related to. Luckily, I have some pretty sweet branches on my tree. No matter what you do though, peeps in your family are morally obligated to care or they look like  a jerk. No one wants to look like a jerk. The concept of someone caring about and wanting to connect with you simply because they want to is one of life's greatest features.  Seriously. I really feel like having true friends is what makes life have color, fun, and joy, otherwise it just feels like a moldy cardboard box of obligations and responsibilities.  I have been thinking about how being a good friend is a gift that some people have.  Some people can play the harmonica, some people are amazing cooks, and some people know how to be an amazing friend. They know when to call and how to listen and how to make you laugh. You feel like you don't have to put on mascara or be anything but yourself around them and they would do anything for you.  You don' t need to talk to them every single day, you just know that they are there, somewhere in the universe and that if you did need them, they would be there in a second.

Yesterday it snowed. Avalanched actually all over the city.  I was stressed because I had to try to get everyone packed (because we are going to Utah, aka the promised land), make some freezer meals, clean the house etc. Kim texted wondering if she could come over since I had asked her to trim my bangs (Why donate to unfantastic Sams when your friend is a professional?).  Lugging the girls into the freezing cold only to have them both melt down in the produce into balls of tantruming crying saggy diaper cart sitters was less than appealing. Kim acted like it was a delight to get my texted grocery list and showed up with a hot chocolate from Starbucks and held Grace so I could get things done.  Jandi dropped off a bag of plane treats and distractions for the girls that wins a blue ribbon for thoughtful.  I just realized from the examples of so many that I have a long way to go and need to make BEING a good friend a habit and practice in my life because it makes such a difference.

 The greatest thing about friends is that they don't expire (unlike the buttermilk I just found in my fridge that expired in October of 2012, I will spare you the details and the smell) and just because you don't see true friends you've made, doesn't make them evaporate.

There is nothing that fills the soul like re connecting with friends that you don't get to see on a day to day basis but are stored in the social archives of your deepest guts for forever.

 It doesn't matter where you find them, your ward, college dorms, mission, the awkward abyss of jr. high, or your local neighborhood. I feel like friends are gifts and none are ever the same and each one leaves you different.

 I can't say the number of times that I have been blessed because of true friends. I have realized that just like playing the tuba, or tennis, or any talent, I need to practice being the kind of friend that I have been blessed with and need every day in my own life.

Seriously, I feel like I should send an apology card to every friend I have because I am horrible at answering my phone and fail miserably at calling people back, I depend on facebook to alert me when its someones birthday and I still haven't sent out my wedding thank you cards from 3 years ago.  I want to work on it. Badly. Everyone needs true friends. Everyone. I know I need oxygen, food and water to stay alive, but I need friends to add life to my living.