That One Friend

Today I spent my afternoon at the pool with a very good friend of mine.  She is actually one of my very closest friends.  I enjoyed my time laying in a chair soaking up the sun while we chatted about what was going on in her life and I talked to her about my crazy life.  I shared some insane stories of my night shifts spent working in the ER and my equally crazy co-workers that are the stars in those stories, we talked about my family and the chaos that erupts in my house on a daily basis, we talked about church, chatted about our individual views on controversial issues and agreed that the children playing at the pool needed a bit more discipline then they were receiving.  It was nice to have that time to just be Jeannine. I wasn’t anyone’s Mom…I wasn’t anyone’s wife…I wasn’t an employee, or a sister, or a daughter…I was just me and it felt good.  

My time at the pool today with Jennifer also reminded me of a simple truth...that every woman needs that one friend that they can be themselves with...the one friend that won’t judge them for bad behavior or a poor choice of words during an emotionally charged situation…the one friend that won’t be disgusted by you when you show up at her house with no makeup on and your hair not fixed…the one friend who is genuinely happy for you when you are blessed to achieve greatness…the one friend that is thrilled beyond words when you look beautiful – even if that means that you look better than she does…that one friend that knows when to just listen to you and keep her mouth shut and when she should speak some hard truth to you in a loving way…that one friend that knows your faults and loves you in spite of them…that one friend who will gladly walk in when the rest of the world has walked out.  As women we all NEED that kind of a friend.  And today I am reminded how grateful I am to be blessed with that kind of friend.