Isn’t friendship a wonderful gift! My dearest friend is sleeping downstairs. We’re breaking tradition and saving our matching pajamas for tomorrow’s first night on the beach. We’ve been friends for over 40 years, raised our children together, mourned our husbands together, celebrated our grandchildren together. Moving to Roanoke three years ago didn’t change things. We still talk on the phone and spend occasional weekends together and peruse the thrift stores. I don’t know how to do life without her. I think she feels the same.

We sat on the porch after supper as dusk quietly crept across the neighborhood. We laughed and talked about our trip in the morning to Florida. She was enamored with all the cardinals that gathered at dusk, the males so handsome in their vivid crimson colors. Kat sat under the feeders thinking of dessert but soon came back to the porch and her bed. We wondered why the cars were slowing down as they passed my house and when I walked Penelope I noticed we had left a suitcase and her beach chair and her hat and beach towels in the road beside the car. We were so excited to see each other we just walked on up to the porch forgetting the task at hand. We got a good laugh out of that!

I believe the sun knew I had a guest tonight and rolled slowly down the horizon, flaunting herself in a sequined gown of hot pink and orange. Mother Nature painted a magnificent sunset, copying the colors of a ripe mango, brushing the horizon in a fiery pinkish orange. The mackerel sky, undulating and rippling in waves of clouds across the heavens, was kissed a pale pink, fading gracefully as the day ended. Right as darkness shut the day down, Mother Nature’s brushes stroked a hot pink fire and silhouetted the old oaks and magnolia a jet black and day ended as quickly as night awakened.

Proverbs 27:9 reads “A sweet friendship refreshes the soul.” I think friendship is a gift from God and a friendship rooted in God strengthens our faith and brings us joy and happiness. My friend and I have a deep faith and I think we have a spiritual friendship. Jesus told the disciples to “love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” Cicero said, “True friends improve our happiness and abate misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief.” My friend was so supportive when Chief died, kind and quiet in her solace, always knowing when I needed her comfort.

I think Roxanne Drury has captured the perfect definition of friendship — “Be sure to thank God for your friends, the people he has given you to walk through life with. The people who will tell you the truth, even if it hurts. The people who will listen and not judge. The people who you love and who will love you back no matter what. The people who time and distance have no hold on. The people who will make you a stronger and better person. They are a good gift.”

Friendship brings a lifetime of blessings. Our friends are our chosen family. Friends celebrate our joyous times and comfort us in our tragic times. Abraham Lincoln said, “The better part of one’s life consists in his friendships.” Friendship is a gift from God. We need to treasure our friendships with family and friends and be grateful for their blessings.

“I get by with a little help from my friends.” — The Beatles