{Five Minute Friday} Friend

This is to the forever friends and the coffee shop friends. This is for the ones who gave me a place to land as I roamed through your lives.

 This is to the ones who stayed up with me all hours of the night.

This is to the ones who loved me.

This is the ones who opened up their hearts and homes to me.

This is to the ones who talked with me about Jesus, doubts, fears, and insecurities, with that raw vulnerability that few give.

This is to the ones who don't talk regularly anymore.

This is to the ones who came up with codes and wrote letters to be deciphered.

This is to the ones who saw a lonely heart and gave love and a place to land.

Thank you.

Thank you to all who were my friend, for brief times or long times, for ones who are just beginning, I see and remember those kindnesses. The ones who listen. The ones who share. The ones who come to me with their problems.

Friends double joy. They take some of the pain. They cry with you over chocolate and aching feet and aching hearts.

This is the love song to the friends.

The ones that have faded in my rear view mirror, but remain close to my heart.

To the ones who pursued even over distance, time, and space.

Friends are irreplaceable and vital to a full human existence. They see you, they welcome you, they help you when you are alone and you maybe just need someone to talk with.

Being a friend is one of the greatest callings and best investments we can make in our lives.

Because in being a friend, you invest that most precious of commodities: time.

You see a person, and you give them your irreplaceable, limited time. Even just an hour. It's a gift. And it's precious.

So to all those who have given me that gift, that open clock, those moments shared, I thank you.