Today I am thankful for friends near and far.

11.21.2020

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This morning my friend Tami came over to my house. Our plan was to spend the morning working on my backyard. Tami is not only generous and helpful, she’s also quite talented and knowledgeable about plants and landscaping and all that kind of stuff (which I am not). I’ve had this ongoing backyard landscaping project going for months now, and Tami and I were going to kick it into high gear today, raking rock and laying pavers. Here’s the problem, though. I haven’t seen Tami in quite some time. We chat on the phone and text fairly regularly, but we still had a lot to catch up on. Hard landscape work doesn’t make for good chit-chat, so we ended up sitting on my patio for several hours talking instead. I have no regrets. It was a beautiful way to start my day.

Tonight my friend Jennifer called me. We’d been trying to coordinate a time to catch up for a while and I’m so glad we connected tonight. When she lived in Arizona, I spent many, many hours sitting at Jen’s kitchen counter just talking and hanging out. She lives in Maine now, and I love that we still talk and hang out. Now we just do it over the phone or on zoom. We shared stories of our adventures teaching during a pandemic and all kinds of other stuff. She’s a dear, dear friend and I miss her terribly, but our interstate friendship is a true gift to me. Talking with her was a beautiful way to end my day.

Tami lives about 5 miles from my house. Jen lives about 3,000 miles away. Although they represent geographical extremes, I hold them both very close at heart. Connecting with a cherished friend is always a blessing. Today I feel especially grateful that my day was doubly blessed – bookended by beautiful friendships near and far.