Best Friends

      Best friends are the best!  I don’t know how people go through life without one.  Most of us have good friends, and even great friends, but those who have "best friends" know what I'm talking about--there is a difference.  A true best friend knows more about you than anyone else and still chooses to spend time with you.  They not only choose to spend time with you, but they actually don’t feel complete without you in their life.  As if their life simply doesn’t work right without you in it.  A best friend feels what you feel and experiences what you experience, even if they aren’t with you physically when you are going through it.  This is the type of friend I refer to when I say “best friend.”

      I am blessed to have a best friend; someone who has been with me since second grade.  When you have known a person for that long it gets to a point that even if you decided you didn’t like them anymore, you are still obligated to be their friend simply because of what they know about you. They have way too much information on you to ever let them go (this is not my case).   If you are lucky, that person becomes so precious to you that you know you simply could not live without them (this is my case)!  We have known each other so long we can have an entire conversation without actually saying anything.  What I mean is, we share so many of the same memories that we can simply say, "Do you remember that time?", and the other one knows exactly what time is being referred to.  Here is what a conversation can look like:

      Me:  "Do you remember when we...
      Her:  "Then we went to the..."
      Me:  "But it was closed."
      Her:  "Oh my goodness, that was the funniet thing ever."
      Us:  <hysterical laughter>

      Our friendship has survived distance, a falling out, more distance, and extended periods of time of not seeing each other.  Yet through all of that, we have remained close and have been with each other through all the major milestones of life.  One of our most precious moments in my heart was being in the delivery room when her youngest child was born.  That is something I will cherish for all time.  Another one was bringing Tony home to my parent’s house and her waiting in front of their house with two or three large bags from Toys-R-Us.  These are moments that aren’t shared with just anyone outside of the family-tree.  As I am sure most of you know, family is more than just biological relation, and she is family to me!

      I was reading the book of Ruth in the Bible this week and weeping, which seems to happen every time I read it.  There is something so powerful about the relationship between Ruth and Naomi.  Ruth was willing to do whatever it took to stay with Naomi.  Naomi was so important to her she simply knew she had to be with her, to share her life with her, to follow her wherever she went.  “But Ruth replied, ‘Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you.  Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay.  Your people will be my people and your God my God.  Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried.  May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me’” (Ruth 1:16-17).

      The part that caught my focus this week was “your people will be my people.”  Since my best friend and I have known each other since elementary school we have had to live this part of the verse.   She is just as much a part of my family as my own siblings, and I am a part of her family as well. As we were dating we had to accept each other’s boyfriends and even each other’s friends.  Then came engagements and marriages.  We not only had to accept each other’s spouses, but they had to accept us as well.  When we get together we are a force to be reckoned with and can be quite overwhelming to be around.  We have been blessed that our spouses get along; most of our boyfriends did not!  Next came our kids, which of course we love and accept as our own and they all seem to love each other as well.  As a matter of fact, our oldest boys talk every week, even if it is just though Xbox Live.

      It is easy to overlook how blessed we are to have this lasting friendship and unbreakable bond between us.  There is not a day that goes by that she is not on my mind, in my heart, and embedded in my prayers.  There are few days over the years that we missed talking to each other, whether in person, over the phone, social media, and/or email.  The majority of my precious memories have her in them and I can’t imagine my life without her. In the movie “Runaway Bride,” Rita Wilson’s character says to Richard Gere’s character that it takes three people to maker her marriage work, her, her husband, and their therapist.  My best friend and I say something similar, but instead of saying therapist, we say each other.

      So this week I am thankful for Jennifer Dippel.  I am thankful for her heart, and that I have a home there.  I am thankful for her ears, and that they are always ready to hear me go on-and-on until I am done.  I am thankful for her arms and the warmth of their hugs.  I am thankful for her mind and the way it helps guide mine.  I am thankful for her mouth and the wisdom that comes from it.  I am thankful for her spirit, enthusiasm, and energy and how they affect me when we are together.   I am thankful for her laughter and how contagious it is.  I am thankful to finally live so close to her that I can randomly stop by for a visit for no reason at all.  And finally, I am thankful for our memories, the ones we cherish, all the ones we have forgotten, and the ones we wish we could forget and will never tell…anyone!