For Everything, A Season

You know the e-mail that floats around spouting  on and on about how friends come into our lives for a reason, a season, or a lifetime?  I sat in the mall this morning with the newest addition to my "lifetime" of friends.  I say she is the newest of my "lifetime" friends, because I can simply tell that she (her name is really Michelle) is "gonna be around for a while, honey."  I just love her.

In the picture to the right she is the one in the black triathlon get up.  This was taken about two miles into the 26.2 mile run portion of Ironman Florida on November 7, 2009.  She was racing her first Ironman, and boy did she do a bang up job.

Anyway, back to friends who flit and float into our lives.....

I don't have a ton of "lifetime" girl friends.  But those that I do have, I cherish and hold near and dear to my heart.  These are my friends that no matter how long it has been since we last saw each other or spoke on the phone (or even "Facebooked" each other) we immediately fall back into that comfortable togetherness of being with a friend.  It is a blessing to know that on any given day, I could call one of them or show up in their driveway and I would be as welcome as if I had only been there the night before at the school play.

We are beginning the Advent season which, by divine planning, always includes Thanksgiving.  What a blessing to have friends of all kinds to share with me and our Lord the wonder, beauty, and majesty of Thanksgiving which then gives way to the glorious season of CHRISTmas.