LOVE month, day 4

I love my friends. I often say that I need my friends. I don't know if I would actually physically die without them, but they sure are important to my emotional health.

I spent my adolescent years and high school experience learning who I was rather than practicing the art of being a great friend. Therefore, I did not emerge from that time in my life with a great number of close friends. There are a few select girls who I keep in touch with from time to time and admire from a distance, but even they have a much larger circle from that time.

In college I fared a little better, taking from that time deeper relationships, a result of a less selfish me, I suppose. One friend imparticular is the kind everyone hopes to run into sooner rather than later in life.

My time in New York found me depending on friends for my very sanity. I needed them, they were a virtual lifeline and I loved them dearly. There was a group of women tossed into the same situation fumbling for solid ground and we found it together and had wonderful adventures along the way. Leaving the city broke my heart as I had learned to thrive on the hustle and bustle of Manhattan, but leaving the girls was something I simply couldn't face. We are now all over the country, our husbands building their various practices as we build our families. We admire, coach, support and hurt for each other from afar. I treasure these women and had serious doubts as to whether I would meet a group that filled my needs so perfectly again.

Those I call "my girls" now are a different mix. They aren't like the last group, which after some adjustment time, I deemed a good thing. They have different talents, ones I only dream of possessing. They have different personalities and priorities that have taught me rethink my box. They see the world differently and yet again, I have fallen in love. I have offended and they have offended and it passes and we move on. We laugh our heads off at the silliest things and love each other's children like our own. I spent last night with some of them and was grateful that silent moments weren't awkward at dinner as we could have probably guessed what each other was thinking. I know the things they struggle silently with and pray for the heartache to ease. I know without a doubt that if I needed them, not having my immediately family close, that they would step in and there wouldn't be a thing to worry about. Friends don't get better than that. I absolutely love mine.

two things of probably no interest to you.

first,

denten brought us fresh corn this weekend from a farm just down the road.

picked fresh saturday.

I should have waited to take pictures when they were finished, because we were left with a lot of a lot of empty corn cobs.

for the record, denten is not a fan of me taking pictures of him eating.

and a poll: how do you eat your corn on the cob?

I eat around.

denten eats across.

our children are not discriminatory yet.

second,

d has been researching (speaking to old navajo women) his fry bread techniques.

he keeps tweaking his recipe and methods and accomplished his finest batch yet yesterday.

it was soft, light and fluffy. and delicious.