Happy Galentines!

 "A good friend is a connection to life--a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world." -Lois Wyse

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Tonight was Galentines. Yep, you read that right...GALentines. No boys, but a girls night out, celebrating our friendship and sista-hood!

Unfortunately this isn't the whole group, but a good number of them...

I am so thankful to have so many wonderful people in my life and incredible people that I am able to call friends. I am truly blessed.

Next year, Galentines will be bigger and better...so spread the word and bring all your favorite 'gals.'

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"I think if I've learned anything about friendship, it's to hang in, stay connected, fight for them, and let them fight for you. Don't walk away, don't be distracted, don't be too busy or tired, don't take them for granted. Friends are part of the glue that holds life and faith together. Powerful stuff." -Jon Katz

Amigas

I've been thinking a lot lately about friendship...

I am so thankful for the dear friends that God has seen fit to bless my life with. They are absolute treasures to me. The older we get, I think we begin to realize what a rarity it is to have a true friend, let alone more than one. True friendship is something that is to be treated with care, held dear to the heart, and shouldn't be taken for granted.

The following thought by Marjorie Hinckley is a favorite of mine:

"We are all in this together. We need each other...It is a sociological fact that women need women. We need deep and satisfying and loyal friendships with each other. These friendships are a necessary source of sustenance. We need to renew our faith every day. We need to lock arms and help build the kingdom so that it will roll forth and fill the whole earth...Let us "watch with one another...that we may all sit down in heaven together.""

There are so many out there who are lonely and would give anything to have a friend, someone to listen to them, and to care about them. Let us seek them out. Let's make a commitment to be a friend to the friendless, and better friends to those who are already our friends. We have been given the gift of one another...so let us love, and lift, and pray for one another...and as we stand together, arm in arm, we will be able to make it through whatever this life throws at us.

I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world...(Thomas Edison)

I am thankful. So thankful. For the influence of such good people in my life...

I came across this quote not too long ago, and it spoke the words of my heart and life better than I could have ever said it. And it has come to mind more times than I can count...

"My choice of friends has helped keep me straight.
I have had friends who expected me to be good,
and I have tried not to disappoint them."
~Camilla Eyring Kimball

But there is one important thing I would like to add to this...and that is those friends of which I speak of, not only expect me to be good, but they show me how. They set incredible examples. And this, this makes all the difference.

This is a gift I have been given that the gratitude which I feel for it, is beyond words. Those friends, those people, have come into my life when I needed them most. And thankfully many of them have stuck around and continue to offer support and encouragement. They continue to live exemplary and inspiring lives that help me keep going when at times I begin to stumble or falter or become weary.

To these friends, I say thank you. For leading and guiding and being willing to walk with me as I learn from your example. Thank you for the countless ways you bless my life. Thank you for teaching and loving me. Most of all, thank you for being you...

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"In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out.
It is then burst into flame by an encounter
with another human being.
We should all be thankful for those people
who rekindle the inner spirit."
~Albert Schweitzer~
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