maintain great friendships

Came home from my book club tonight feeling all warm and fuzzy from spending a great evening with my new-found friends. They are a group of intelligent, literate, outspoken women and I have thoroughly enjoyed their company for about four months now.

This evening I went to an impromptu church service with two friends. The service was completely put on by middle school age kids, everything from the music, prayers, message, communion and entertainment. There were about 100 kids and a handful of adults. My friends and I unfortunately got stuck in the front row and ended up giggling through the whole service. We were led in a group prayer and one of the kids in one breath asked God to bless the Amish community, Korean-American relations and everyone who has ever lost a pet. During communion the young girl in charge of the bread tore off a piece of the body of Christ the size of a croissant, which I couldn’t shove in my mouth and instead laughed so hard I could barely partake of the wine without spewing it on the altar.

We were not laughing at them but I’m sure it seemed that way. I appreciated their goofy awkwardness and irreverence. Despite our poor behavior it really was a lovely effort and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

I caught up with my friend Katy today; she’s a good, good friend who I regularly neglect. She, of course, e-mailed me first. She told me how she was mentioning me to another person and she summed up our relationship so well: “We’re very close. I haven’t talked to Jo in months, but we’re very close.” She’s very funny, and she’s absolutely right. I do feel close to her.

Katy is a bright, hilarious, vivacious young woman trapped in a body with a debilitating illness. She has physical limitations that make a lot of regular daily activities difficult, meanwhile she is raising two small kids, and has extended family issues that by themselves would be very tough to take. I told her about 43Things and she seems interested in trying it out. I am hopeful it will be beneficial for her. The outreach and connections she will build should be morale boosting, and the writing process itself is cathartic.

Katy, I hope I’ve done you justice. I love you and I am grateful for your friendship.

I have no trouble making new friends, but have issues preserving the ones I already have. There are a few people I consider my lifetime best friends, one of whom lives ten minutes from me, but I don’t take the time to connect and nurture those relationships. Thank God they keep coming back! This is a very important goal to me, I really want to have something fulfilling in my life other than work (which I like) and family (which I love). Still, in order to be a mentally sound well-rounded individual, I need more.

My progress on this goal today…I spent five minutes writing a response e-mail to my friend Grace, whom I have ignored for the past five months. Talk about baby steps. And I love Grace, she is worth much much more of my time.