Be a Friend

I am a homeschool mom and have been for 26 years. I have about 4 years left! I am a parent of 6. Four of my children have married; one has divorced. All 4 of them have 3 or more children, giving me 15 grandchildren! I have 2 daughters at home yet. I am happily married to a great, fun, hardworking guy. I have only 1 cat and 1 dog at present. We have a 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom house on 3 levels. Our home sits on 17 1/2 acres. We have a garden and a big yard. We heat with wood mostly. I am the homeschool co-op coordinator in my area, and I teach at co-op often. I am very politically involved, also.

I tell you these things, not to bore you, but to show you I am busy. Aren't we all? We each have our own unique little worlds. We fill them with what is important to us. We keep busy with lots of things. When I am not busy with the duties of all those other things, I like to cook and bake. I sew some and like to write. When I am teaching at co-op, I like to develop my own curriculum to teach. I love to read and read about 3 books a week. My family can fill lots of my hours as I babysit for grandchildren or do other things with and for them

But do you see what is missing? I didn't really until recently. I have lots of people in my life, but not much time for friends. I have casual, social friends. There are people in my life I really, really like. We see each other at political events, church or homeschool events. But none of them are friends I would really confide in or ask for help from. It took an auction to make me realize this. We are having a big estate auction to sell off my in-laws' collections, household items, tools, and antiques. It is a big deal. We need help. We could not think of hardly anyone to ask for help. We have 6 kids, but only half are available. We did ask a neighbor who my husband had helped with an auction last year. There were a couple others we asked, but we realized we didn't know who else to ask.

Have we been so busy with family and other things that we have not cultivated true friendships? Have we not been there for others when they needed us? I don't know what I could have done differently or how I could have lived differently to change this. But what I do know is that it is important to find friends and to cultivate those relationships. In different seasons of life, we have had friends we did things with and for. Just now though, it seems as if we are lacking.

So my advice is to be a friend to someone. Be there for someone. Share with them. Enjoy things together. Talk to each other. Help them out when you can. Have fun together. Take time to cultivate friendships. Make time for friends. You never know when you might really need a true friend.