The gifts of friendship

Isn't it just amazing when you have a friend-- or even better-- friends, who help you to be the best 'you' that you can be? I started to write about friends who make you be the best, most authentic you, but the truth is, that no one can make you be anything but yourself. A friend who helps you along the way gives you opportunities to be the best, perhaps sets an example, offers a helping hand, or even asks for a helping hand.
I have been so blessed in my life to have friends who have done just this, and I hope that I am proving not to be a disappointment to their vision of me. Some friends are those of youth, who share your memories as you share theirs, and they are priceless, golden, above any treasure you could name. Some are recent, friends who see and listen to who you are right now, and how you have come to be that way, and with whom you explore new and perhaps different experiences and adventures than you have had before. I am lucky enough to be blessed with both and I cannot imagine how I ever got so lucky.
I look around me today at the evidence of what friendship means, and I see a book that was a gift, that has made me think, has made me reflect on what it means to be a child in a very dangerous situation, to be a man willing to extend a hand to protect a stranger even at the risk of his own life and perhaps even the lives of those he loves. I see my well used gym bag, which would not be there without having been urged to try my luck at entering a contest, the results of which have changed my life, perhaps lengthening it so that I can accomplish things that need to be done by me. I think of the new experiences, like hiking, that have become a part of my life due to the camaraderie that has developed from sharing and cheering others on, hoping for their success as much as for my own. I feel the muscles in my arms that are fatigued from the hours that I have sat here at my computer finishing and polishing stories that I had written long ago, but never did anything about before a friend and angel urged me to dig them out, to join a writer's group (I still haven't done that, but I will) to look for an agent, and to do something about them. Yesterday, all day, I even smelled friendship, from when I was embraced by a friend who inquired about my husband's health and hugged me, leaving the smell of his cologne on my cheek. All day I was reminded that I could count on him if I needed to.
So for me, what friendship means is enrichment. It means the deepening and broadening of what life is really meant to be. It is meant to be shared and embraced, to be used as a learning tool and a teaching tool, to help others to be the best that they can be, both by helping and by example. It is a gift to understand that the world is a far richer place with the love of a friend, that the scenery is more beautiful when shared with a friend, that the laughter we share with friends is delicious, better than any dessert, that the tastes and sounds and music we hear are brighter and clearer and sharper and feed our souls to the brim when shared with friends.
So here is a toast to all the friends that we have made, and all those we have yet to make. You make our lives so much richer, so much more worth living. Without you, the world would be a much duller place.