Here’s To Us!

Friends help complete my life. I am so grateful that I am surrounded with diverse friends and friendships. Each one shines with their own personality and reminds me of the uniqueness we all possess. And so now I raise my glass…

Here’s to you…dear friend who knows how to share laughter and wit. You remind me to enjoy each moment and fill with a lightness of spirit. You unharness the bridle of maturity, if just for a bit, so that I remember what it is to be a kid at heart again. The laughter, a medicine for my soul.

Here’s to you…dear friend who knows how to listen and let me vent my mundane issues. You do so without judgement and without the need to fix my problems…you simply listen. I appreciate your attentive nature. I hope that I can and do provide the same for you. Sometimes just listening can be the best a friend can offer.

Here’s to you…dear friend who can share a hug, stand by me at my worst and even help me be my best. Your willingness to provide a safe haven for another is truly a gesture of friendship. Not running away, but having my back in the storm. I will never forget. May you find me there for you as well.

Here’s to you…dear friend who can easily share in the joys and triumphs of another without a shred of contempt. Your ability to join in with the success of others and not make one feel unworthy of any accomplishment is unselfish in spirit and above what many may ever achieve. I hope you will grab my extended hand, if ever needed. I thank you for extending yours as well.

Here’s to you…dear friend who can open up in your heart and share some of your deepest troubles and painful times. You trust me with your openness as you seek my time and counsel. I am beyond flattered with your frankness as I desire for better days ahead…including this day. I see you, and I understand that we all carry baggage. We need to sometimes stop and help another pull the packed suitcase along.

Here’s to you…dear friend who sits by my side at the campfire or around the table. Our sharing of memories, discussions of life and issues pressing, as well as quiet moments of reflection. You ground me as well as remind me of how the depths of living are awash with yesterdays captured in my head, tasks of today, and hopes for tomorrow. You are my kindred spirit. May we talk and seek and wonder…together for hours.

Here’s to you…dear friend who lets me be me. Acceptance for being who we are is the real measure of friendship.  Life is a give and take and a yin and yang. Friendship is loving one another and seeing their gift to the circle. May you fight for that friend and never give up on nurturing the friendship. Such worthy gifts need effort and patience and respect to be maintained.

Some friends share early childhood then are gone…some friends share the turbulent years into school and then are gone…some friends only meet as adults…and some are gone. Some friends may not see us but briefly once a year and even though much is not heard aloud, much is spoken within and between.

I share this with you now…because I truly believe we should acknowledge our friends while they are here to hear us and we are here to be heard. Tributes are beautiful…but knowing your mark on the life of another, the value of your friendship no matter how short the time spent…that is an aspiration of mine. In some fashion, I want you to know that you have made a difference in my life. Our passing and sharing of time, was meant to be and is not fleeting in the make up of who we are. So my friends…Here’s to us!