Friendship. What does it mean to you? My Rock and I have amazing friends as I have stated time and time again. I am not sure why we are so lucky, but we are blessed with the best of friends from our childhood, college years, and adulthood. Even the new people we have met have become the best of friends. We are forever grateful for our amazing friendships.

I am not sure what friendship means to you or if you keep score in your friendships. I hope not. It doesn’t matter who called last or whose turn it is to visit. Just make it work. To me, it is a feeling I get as I meet and get to know people. Maybe I am different but when I make a bond with someone, I feel like it is forever. Even if I don’t talk, text, or communicate with that person on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis, it is a bond that stands the test of time. I believe we all know that everyone’s lives are super busy. And as friendships grow we need to understand that circumstances change. We can’t expect that person to be there every minute of every day but what we can expect is that each person will make an effort to keep that friendship going in whatever way they can.

According to the Internet and Wikipedia, the following is the definition of friendship. Friendship is a hard concept to put into words and each relationship is like a snowflake…unique and different in its own special way.

“If you look in the dictionary it will tell you that the definition of friendship is a state of being friends; friendly relation, or attachment, to a person, or between persons; affection arising from mutual esteem and goodwill; friendliness; amity; goodwill. That all sounds nice, but it doesn’t cover the fact that a true friendship is a relationship that can survive the test of time and remain unconditional.”

“Friendship for most people is a combination of affection, loyalty, love, respect, and trust. The general traits of a friendship include similar interests, mutual respect, and an attachment to each other, and in order to experience friendship, you need to have true friends. The emotional safety provided by friendship means not having to weigh your thoughts and measure words. True friendship is when someone knows you better than yourself and takes a position in your best interests in a crisis. Friendship goes beyond just sharing time together, and it is long-lasting.”

As we continue on this journey we call life, we need to realize how important friendships are. In my single days, my friends were there to help fill the void of a significant other. I had friends I could count on to go to church with, to play sports with, and to go shopping with. As a single person, you do have to learn to do a lot of life on your own, but with good friends, some tasks can be made easier by sharing them with another human being.

When I met My Pilot, I didn’t know what I was getting into. I knew that I had the best of friends. I didn’t realize that he also had the best of friends. We both keep in touch with friends we have known since elementary school. We keep in touch with friends from college. We keep in touch with friends we met at ski weeks. We keep in touch with people all over the country and the world.

Sometimes it is overwhelming. Sometimes I need a break from all these friendships. Sometimes our social life is too much. But honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love that our friends understand that we may not remember all the life events or their kids’ life events or even names sometimes:) but we love them and will do our best. But when we get together, it will be like no time has passed. I love that we can call friends up at the last minute (and they can call us) and say hey we are coming to town. Are you around? And usually, we are welcome with open arms.

A little over a month ago, we had our Fifth Anniversary Party on New Year’s Eve. We had a weeklong party celebrating with friends from all walks of both of our lives. Sometimes people like to keep their friends separate, but My Love and I both don’t believe that at all. All of our friends are so awesome that they should meet each other and love each other like we love them.

What we found was true. Our friends truly had a wonderful time getting to know each other and spending time together. We even got a note from one of our single flight attendant friends and she said this:

“You attract amazing friends! That’s saying something as I don’t usually enjoy “all couple parties” but yours was absolutely AMAZING!”

We cannot be more appreciative of our beautiful friends. We love and cherish you and your friendships. Count your blessings if you have amazing friends and foster those relationships. If you don’t, then it’s time to let them go and make new amazing friends!