Friendship

"There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature."
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

I've been thinking quite a bit about friendship recently, more so now as we've wished several of our amazing temple sisters a heartbreaking "see you later" in the last few weeks. Growing up as a military child saying good bye was a routine event, whether it was for your move or someone else's move saying good bye was a routine event for us. Recently though we've gotten out of practice as we've been here an amazing 16 years now. I've lived in this area for longer than anywhere else in my short years. As I stand on the brink of yet another year I think back over the friends I've made and lost throughout the years. Thanks to social media (i.e. Facebook) it's been easier to reconnect with those long lost friends and being able to carry those friendships over greater distances and for a few moments out of the day feeling like the world isn't such a big place and the strings that connect us together are still there for us to strengthen. 

Sometimes it is funny how friendship develops. Some come quickly as we find in them kindred spirits as Anne would say. We find in them someone who shares our interests or our thoughts. Those are the quick friends who stick with us through many trials in our lives. And then we have those who don't start out as friends. In Relief Society a few weeks ago Sister Boyce (our seriously amazing Relief Society President who I just love!) was giving the lesson on visiting teaching. She talked about how it never failed her route included a sister she wasn't so sure of in the beginning, but by the end the sister was someone she loved. We had a sister leave us this week who was one of these friends. She was a little rough around the edges in the beginning with us, but over the course of this last year and a half she has grown to be an amazing example of steadfast faith in the face of difficulty and trials.  Upon the end of the shift it was such a terrible moment of joy and sadness mixed together as we knew it was the last time we would share our life stories in those stolen and quiet moments in the temple. 

I've come to genuinely love those sisters with whom we serve each week. They are in my life for a reason. While many of them are old enough to be my grandmother, I am truly grateful for their presence in my life. Having lost my grandmother's at a young age - one to cancer 12 years ago and the other to Alzheimer's shortly before her even though she did not officially pass until about five years ago now - having these women in my life has for those Saturday mornings brought them both back into my life. I know they were placed in my life for a reason. I'm so fortunate and lucky to call them my friends and my temple family. When I graduated a few weeks (okay it was TWO months ago!) back I was so fortunate to have one of the sisters we serve with there as she celebrated the graduation of her own son. Seriously I think they shouted louder than my own family! I'm so very blessed to have them in my life. I know my Heavenly Father put them in my life at the time when I needed them all the most. They have carried us through some of the rough patches over the course of two years and I wouldn't trade sleeping in any Saturday morning for being there with them bright and early  in the House of the Lord.

My second home and haven from the storms of life.