A Friend Who Makes You Cry

I have this friend who likes to make me cry.

You know the type. 

Or do you?

My Sweet Man is away for work this week so I've been missing adult company and in a nutshell, doing life alone, and I've had a few things on my mind this week. So this morning when I texted my friend and she picked up on my hint and invited me over (in spite of the fact that she home schools - she probably would have gladly traded my empty house for her bustling one!) you can bet it didn't take me long to round up something to do (sewing machine and a project) and head out the door.

We have one of those "you're one of the friends who can come over no matter how dirty the bathroom is or what I'm doing 'cuz I'll just do it while you're here" relationships. Actually, I'm blessed to be part of a circle of women who all have relationships like that with each other. 

I didn't get as much sewing done as I could have. Instead I joined in on the home schooling and learned that I am, in fact, smarter than a fifth grader. Though having the math answer guide in hand sure helped. I (with only a moderate degree of success) stifled my giggles as she read to her children about Bladderwort. She was so immersed in teaching that she didn't understand immediately. Then it was nearing noon so while teacher and students worked on their science experiments, I snuck upstairs to make lunch.

It turns out that a morning in a bustling unconventional school room what just what I needed. My spirits had been lifted - but maybe I needed the afternoon just a little bit more. 

We went for a long walk where we enjoyed encouraging conversation where a couple of times the words that were spoken were just as meaningful for the speaker as for the listener, and froze our noses. We continued our chat as we thawed over tea. I was doing fine until just before it was time for me to leave. That's when she made me cry. 

You see, she has this way of asking all the wrong right questions. She has this intuition and soul-piercing eyes that scream at her when something is amiss with her friends. A quality most good friends possess - they know how you're doing without even asking.

Yes, my friend "likes" to make me cry. It's not because she's vengeful, but because it's exciting to be part of someone working through something, because she cares and wants to encourage me. She wants to know the true me, my thoughts, my feelings, my dreams, my challenges. It's not that she wants me to be sad - not at all, in fact I've never seen her let anyone cry alone. It's that we love to help each other and we love to celebrate life's victories together. It's what I want for her, too. It's the way good friendships work.

It's not something every little girl dreams of, to have a friend who makes her cry, but it should be. 

It's my wish for each of you, because we were not created to do life alone.

Today's Joy Dare. 

A Gift Thrifted: The Hillbilly Wagon. 

A Gift Broken: The fence of our corral. While broken, it still feels like a gift because it holds a large key to the dream of one day owning horses and maybe a couple cows.

A Gift Fixed. December 2010 I slipped on ice while out for a run and fell, breaking my right arm. I waited weeks for surgery and then weeks more to be healed enough to remove the cast (that went 3/4 of the way up my arm). Today I celebrated full recovery by heading out for a walk... the first time I've done this outside on winter roads since I broke it. (Although I have had full mobility and strength back for quite some time now.)