I was finishing up a mailing to letter writing friend and was looking for just the right quote to put in the card. I entered some friendship parameters and found one that I loved but continued to browse for fun nuggets of wisdom and came across a quote that I liked when I first saw it and then it really stuck with me. Having not had enough foresight to write down the quote, its source, or what exactly it was that I searched, I have not been able to find it again. Ugh. 

Anyway, the more I thought about the quote, the more it made me think of a Good Friend and the power of our relationship. The gist of the quote, said with quadruple the amount of words because I cannot succinctly repeat it, was something like this: any friend can celebrate your successes with you while they are also successful; a true friend can celebrate you successes with you while they are themselves suffering. Whoa, right? Heavy, serious, good stuff. 

And then, that Friend showed me I was right to think of her. 

Some people take their seasons seriously, and Friend and I are among them. Unfortunately, where I used to live and where friend lives now has very short springs and falls. In fact, this year’s fall was wicked short. I was seeing the posts of gorgeous golden aspen trees from my friends online and then the snow came and ripped most of them away. Friend sadly wrote to me about how there was snow on her deck. So many people who live there complain about every single season, but she doesn’t. She also is really ready to move on, but she’s waiting for it to be right for her family. So my heart felt  sad for her. I tentatively asked her if she would like me to avoid sending her photos of my fall, which has hardly even begun. Immediately she responded that she loves seeing the colors here and looks forward to my photos. 

I thought about how hard it was for me when she was getting her classroom ready for the new school year. There were certain times when she said something or sent a video or photo that almost split my heart in two. And I was still happy for her. I was horribly sad for me, but I was exhuberant for her and her adventure. 

This Friend is not “like a sister” to me, even though we have the ability to drive each other mad. We can read each other’s minds. We can communicate an entire lesson plan in a single look. We can make each other laugh or cry or really listen. We can yell at each other and put each other in her place if we need to. We are the very best of Friends. 

She’s a true Friend to me. I’m proud to be a true Friend to her, too.