Friends ...

Friends are precious! In our lives, there are many different types of friends! My life consists of friends that I see fairly regularly (like at church), friends that I only talk to by email or facebook, friends that actually get to see me without makeup on occasion (that I exercise with or that I chaperone Acteen retreats with!), friends that I tell deep dark secrets to (there aren't many of these!), new friends that I meet through speaking and leading conferences, and then there are friends that I share something in the past with - like old school chums or roomies from college days!

This weekend I'll be seeing some of those friends from long ago and we'll definitely have some talks about those days when we were trying to survive the "Make love, not war" era! Most of us thought it was cool to be hippies and tried to accomplish that by wearing bellbottoms and making the peace sign to others. My long straight hair (that I learned to iron in college!) was another symbol of trying to fit in! I'm sure there were others who did more than just TRY to act like a hippie, especially AFTER high school was over. But I'm not telling .... It's my 40th reunion and I'm looking forward to sharing it with friends who knew me when ... I'm praying that I'll be a good listener, that I'll smile a lot (especially when I don't recognize someone I SHOULD know!), and that others will feel better about themselves after we've talked! Those are things that I look for in a FRIEND!