Thank you .... yet again.

     So .... it's been very interesting to see the comments regarding friends. I guess we can all define "friend" in different ways. But I think we need to be careful when we're so stringent with our definition that we limit our blessings.

     I have many friends. Actually, too many to count. They are not acquaintances, they are not just people I wave to once in a while, they are true friends.

     My definition of a friend is someone I care about- a lot (so of course it's someone one I know). A friend is someone on whom I can call --- for anything -- and know that this person will help me, willingly and without keeping an account of how many times I've asked.

A friend is someone for whom I would do the same. A friend is someone I support and encourage and who does the same --- no matter how far apart we are, how many times a month we talk with each other, how much we share -- or don't share -- our feelings.

No. Matter.

     I have friends whom I don't get to see very often, but when we do see each other we pick right up. And if I ever needed anything, I could call these friends and they'd be there for me. They don't "require" huge investments of my time, deeds or stated feelings. They are my friends because we care about each other --- even with my shortcomings and lack of ability to emote unselfishly. They like me because I'm me.

     And now I need to thank many of these friends. Because they've done some great things for me lately.

     I had 2 wonderful friends go with me to visit Son #2, because they knew it would be a difficult weekend and wanted to be there for me.

     

     I had several friends come to my house after Ike hit and they trimmed my tree, removed it from the hole, patched the hole in my roof, raked my yard, cut up all of the huge branches all over my yard, stacked the new logs on my corner, bagged up every thing that had fallen ..... and put the bags on my corner. It was a lot of work on a Sunday afternoon. And my yard was full of people. People who knew I had a mess and that I was upset and who wanted to help. I didn't ask a single one of them to come ..... but they did.

     I have a friend who had a generator and so made coffee for me and my mom and brought it to us in the mornings.

     I had a friend come and rescue us in the middle of the storm Saturday morning and take my mom, my son and me to his house where we could enjoy light and the news with their generator.

  

     I had friends invite me over just so that I could leave the house and be distracted.

     I had friends who froze water (in what seemed to be all of their available containers (they had power) ) and brought it to me daily. She also made me chocolate chip muffins. And took some of my freezer stuff so that I wouldn't lose everything.

     I have friends from all over the country who called to check in on me and see if we were OK or if we needed anything. They also volunteered to let us stay with them.

     I have a friend who volunteered to bring me a generator --- from Oklahoma.

     I have friends who bought food, batteries, water, ice, coffee, etc. for me.

     I have friends who came over to help me celebrate Son #3's birthday when he was depressed that his dad wasn't here.

     I have friends who celebrated (and still do) with me when the power came back on.

     I could go on and on. I'm sure I'm leaving out hundreds of deeds and people.

I don't know what your many definitions of "friend" are. All I know is that I have more than one person should have.

And that God has blessed me abundantly with them.

And that I need them --- He knew I would need them --- and I hope that I can give back to them even a quarter of what they've given to me.

     Here are some pictures of a few of my friends (if I had carried my camera around more over the years I would have hundreds of these):