I fell asleep watching Gunsmoke late afternoon and missed the beginning of the sunset pageant. But when I woke and looked outside the horizon was bathed in a tropical glow of clouds colored golden mango honey. The trees were so pretty, their bare black limbs silhouetted against the golden sky line. As the sun rolled down the horizon, she darkened the pageant backdrop to an orange glow, a far away forest fire flame’s shade, and closed the day with a kiss from Father Sky. The velvety clouds hanging in the sky canvas turned pink and purple, dressing themselves in colorful frocks to match the sun’s formal pageant gown. Father Sky hung the luminous moon, twinkling stars embellished the navy sky canvas, and the night was awakened.

When our skies are beautiful and blue just remember these days are gifts from God. Clouds both dark and light will enter our lives and we have the promise of a rainbow in the clean, clear sky after the storms pass. God wants us to weather the storms and be grateful for life on this planet, be appreciative of our blessings. Through our faith and prayers, we have assurance that God will ride the storms of life with us. He will hold us and carry us when the loads are too heavy in the storms.

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom,” Marcel Proust. I love that quote and I’m pondering in the lady den this evening thinking about how blessed I am with friends. My dearest friend stopped by on her way home from visiting her son today and ate lunch with me. We always have the best time together.

When I was a child my favorite friend was a boy. We were inseparable. Our mothers and fathers were best friends. We joined the band learning to play the trumpet. I still have my All-State Band medals where we competed playing duets on our trumpets. We rode thousands of miles on our bicycles, even had a route that we rode religiously. We’d go to the City Pharmacy for lemon sours and cherry cokes or to his house for a drink of water. At his house, I’d get a glass and he’d drink from a green glass Coke bottle of water that was always in the refrigerator. He and his two brothers had their names on their bottles. I always wanted to have a bottle in there with my name on it.

Several years ago he came to visit me on Mother’s Day. We sat in the dining room talking and he said, “I probably spent more time here than I did at my own house!” Our friendship picked right back up and we had a wonderful afternoon together. No longer a boy on a bike, but a seasoned doctor, then close to retirement, driving a beautiful navy sports car, a step above the Plymouth Duster he received on his 16th birthday. Obviously very happy in his marriage. When his brother died I cried with him and when my daughter died in a car wreck his phone call moved me to tears. I’ll always love him!

Never really had that special soulmate girl friend till I moved to Alexander City in my middle twenties. I met her casually several times at church but our friendship was cemented one day when we parked by each other at the city library. We got out of our cars at the same and struck up a conversation. “Guess what,” I said, “I’m pregnant.” “So am I,” she says. We got all excited. “I’ve got on Chief’s Levi’s,” I say. Then she starts laughing and says, “I have on Jeb’s Levi’s.” It was a friendship made in heaven glued together with our love of books and reading, raising our children together, a friendship still going strong 44 years later.

She’s always there, even when I don’t realize I need her. Woke up the day of Rosalyn’s funeral and she was in Rosie’s room unobtrusively ironing the boys’ and Chief’s shirts for the funeral. She was my rock during the nightmare of Rosie’s death. When she had a crisis in her family she called at 3 AM and I sped over to her house. She held my hand tightly while she wept. And when Chief died she consoled me as only a soulmate can. Six months later I consoled her when she lost her husband. When we have weekends together we wear our matching pajamas and laugh ourselves silly!

I believe friendship is a gift from God. “A sweet friendship refreshes the soul,” Proverbs 27:9. Melanie Shankle writes, “The aim of friendship is to sow into each other words of eternal life and blessing. We remind each other of God’s wisdom and provision, refresh each other’s spirit, and strengthen each other’s faith.” 

We need to thank God for giving us special people to walk through life with us. People who listen when we talk and don’t judge us, hold us when we cry, and tell us the truth even when we don’t want to hear it. Friends love us unconditionally as does God.

“There is no friend like an old friend who has shared our morning days, no greeting like his welcome, no homage like his praise,” Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.