joyful2beeblogs

My thankfulness list continues. I touched on being thankful for friends in my post “Family: Gotta Love ‘Em.” But friends deserve their own spot on the list of “Thankful for…” posts.

Truly good friends will listen to each other when one needs to talk and offer suggestions and support, sometimes even after hearing the same story twice. We understand when one of us is feeling bad and can’t go on a trip. We provide a ride when the other one’s car is in the shop.  

What would our lives be like without friends??  I have several friends with whom I enjoy various activities; activities such as eating out, traveling, going to movies, or sharing thoughts and feelings. I have two friends I get to do all of these things with and more. They are both a sister to me and very dear friends.

My longest friendship has been since about 2006. D and I have traveled to Busch Gardens, Asheboro Zoo in North Carolina about once a year. We have been on several beach trips with family and other friends. We flew to Boulder, Colorado once, where we ate at a Moroccan restaurant and attended a Fall Festival. We love funny movies and have been known to act unbelievably goofy.

My second friend/sister, M, I have known almost as long but became good friends a few years ago. M taught me that it is fun to add a bus tour to trips to places you are unfamiliar with. You can see the main sights, historical sights, points of interest, and see places you may want to come back to for a more in depth tour.  M and I went to Biltmore Mansion and the town of in Asheville, Atlantic Beach and Beaufort, NC recently. This is a picture from the time M, D and I went to the Asheboro Zoo..

We three share a lot of the same life experiences. Both of these friends are night shift nurses in the same hospital system I worked for. I am a retired night shift nurse now but can commiserate with their night shift experiences. We are now single.(One just lost her husband a year or more ago, (I lost mine in 2009.) The other is long divorced. We all have adult children. Both friends are close to 10 years younger than I am but we all can act like big kids and cut up. We always have a lot of fun together.

We respect each others’ wisdom and experiences and can give and accept advice from each other. An honest and open relationship enables us to tell each other how we really feel about a problem.

I love my other great friends too but don’t get to travel with them like I have with D and M.  One particular friend, J, and I are “soul sisters.” We share spiritual experiences, knowledge and interests in common which we discuss when we meet for lunch.

So here are some photos of M, D and I while on some of the trips mentioned above. D can be a clown and is not afraid to laugh at herself or me.