I Am Thankful for Friends
I am thankful for friends. Perhaps, this sounds particularly banal. Sometimes we need to take a step back and look at the treasures that surround us. Today, I am thankful for friends, just plain old everyday friends.
Certainly, in today’s world it would be easy enough to feel alone and stressed if one would allow that. However, as I watch the stock market continue its rather bumpy decline, see my dollars shrink between the time I leave home and arrive at the market I find that friends are the greatest wealth I possess.
As I have written time and again, our neighborhood is a real community that feels a sense of closeness that comes from interactive support of and for one another. It has come to my attention that many neighborhoods are not quite like the one where I live. Some people don’t even know the names of their next door neighbors. Perhaps, that’s because times have changed so much over the past few decades. Everyone seemed to drift from the idea of community and helping one another to a sense of being the only one of importance… ego.
There have been times in my life when work was my life. There have been times when one thing or another defined who I was. It’s that obsessive nature of over achievement that leads us to isolation and alone-ness. That is nothing more than ego. We all need to seek to rise to our abilities, but all too often it seems to me that we isolate ourselves while rising. If our fortunes should change, and so often they do, as we begin a slow descent we find that our self-imposed isolation becomes a negative in our lives that creates a feeling of helplessness and aloneness, if not sheer loneliness.
I am thankful for friends because times have changed. Perhaps, within the last month many of us are faced with challenges that we never imagined. I suggest that now is not the time to wallow in isolation. Rather it is time to extend a hand and a smile to others. I’m not suggesting that we all run out and play Paris Hilton seeking a new best friend. I’m only suggesting that while each of us feels somewhat alone as the economic crisis digs into our pocketbooks, it is the best time ever to embrace our friends and seek out new ones.
One of the things I learned many years ago is that no matter how insecure I felt at times, there were others wearing the same pair of shoes. A word of caution: Don’t seek friends to activate a pity party. Seek friends who are willing to take action to change things. Maybe now is the time to think about creating a mastermind alliance. Find a few like minded people and rather than hashing out the problems we all face, work toward common ground where you can help one another. We all know the problems. There is no need to try to further define them. It’s time to work for a solution.
So, today I am thankful for friends. One of the neighbors offered to take Mrs. Hildebrand to the bank. Another called me early this morning and offered to come over and help Happy and me in the greenhouse. Yet, another friend called and said she was in the mood to cook today… it’s rainy outside. She’s making dinner for the five families. Happy and I are going to freeze peaches this afternoon for ourselves and some of the neighbors.
Friends are the greatest treasure we have. And, you see, what is the best part of friendship is that true friends don’t wait for you to ask for help. They sense your needs and offer to help. There’s no better place to start that with oneself. When I am feeling a little down and out, I force myself… and I did say “force”… to think about a neighbor or a friend who may need a little help during the day and I call him or her and say that I’m available to do whatever he or she needs. It’s funny. Once I get out of the doldrums and help someone else, they suddenly appear when I need a little kick start.
Again, friendship is the treasure of life. So, today I am thankful for friends. Perhaps, today is the day to introduce yourself to your next door neighbor. Who knows? You may have a lot more in common than you thought.
