three hundred words a day. july 9.

I wonder quite often just what it is that draws us, particularly women, to one another.  What qualities we look for, what characteristics must the other possess.  What circumstances must align for friendships to bloom.

I imagine this changes as we age.  Our childhood friends at two or three are the ones our parents choose for us.  Our teenage besties the ones who generally live closest to us.  In college and beyond, they become the women whose interests we share at that particular point in our lives.  Women who have children when we have children.   Women who do what we do, share our interests, our goals, our habits. 

Over the years, my life has been blessed by a few women that I would call best.  Although most are more recent friends, women I have met and connected with in my later years.  Women who, for the most part, see me as I am now - mostly grown, somewhat together, moving forward.

Often I think what a gift it would be to have more friends who knew me then.  Who have watched me change.  Who have shared in writing my story.

Like these two.

These two have been friends for a very long time.  Farther back than either can remember, the other just was.

They make each other laugh.  And periodically, they make each other cry.  They are the other's loudest cheerleader and toughest critic.  

 They know when to speak and when, although it kills them to do so, when to refrain.
 

They simply connect in a language that is all their own.  A language that we, as adults, seem to somehow have forgotten. 

My one and only birthday wish for you today, sweet girls, is you would not forget, because your  friendship is truly a special gift. 

Happy Birthday, Alex!