Girlfriends ~

Three things I have found to never fail me…Flip flops, old worn-in jeans, and my girlfriends. Armed with these, any situation can be weathered. Flip-flops are comfortable, pack well, and come in all colors. Jeans never wear out… the older they get the better they are and they go with anything. A weathered pair of jeans adds a touch of solid practicality and a little fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants attitude. My girlfriends, my real girlfriends, that is, I have, thankfully, discovered over the last several years. “Friends”… seems like such a simple word…it’s uttered everyday to almost every person imaginable. It’s funny, I used to think that my “friends”, I mean real friends, were the people that I laughed with, talked to, and hung out with. Now, as I am older, I have realized that friends are the people that touch your heart. You can spend hours with them doing nothing at all and it can be the best time of your life, just because it was with them. They're the people you share your secrets with, have similar interests with, cry with, laugh with, and just have fun with. They don't judge you or make you change. They accept you exactly as you are. They look at you and you look at them and see a great person…you don’t see good and bad qualities. You just love spending time together. It’s a complete acceptance of another person.
Girlfriends are more comfortable than old warn in jeans, they are more reliable. The older they get, the more comfortable they are. They keep you fashionable, keep you from being too vain, while letting you be as crazy as you want. Like flip flops, they can walk through the mud with you and come out undamaged. They keep you from taking yourself too seriously.

But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life; and thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine. -Thomas Jefferson