Girlfriends

I used to wonder if I could pick five random people from the phone book and become close friends with them. Would we have enough in common to last a lifetime? Before I knew it, I had exactly that, a group of women who were in my life because of our children. Some of us were girl scout leaders, nurses, artists and world travelers. We've been together through cancer, surgeries, divorces and even death. There were times when it felt like we had nothing in common as well, but we stayed patient and committed, meeting once a month to play Bunko. Now that our children have graduated college and moved out of the house, we've stop playing with dice and take field trips.
Tonight was my turn to host the party. I spent two days cleaning my back yard, planting flowers and lighting candles. Everyone stayed inside, figures. We get so caught up in our own world that we forget to ask about each other so I had asked everyone to bring a short paragraph about what's going on in their life. The game was to see how well we knew each other. As I read the stories out loud, it was funny to see the stumped look on faces. Someone had fed a man chocolate covered strawberries, a son was engaged and another friend was going through a body image crisis. Then, we read our paragraphs individually and with greater detail. Marcia won the prize of "who knows you best".
Our group didn't happen overnight. It took time, patience and understanding. Now that most of us are starting new lives, I'm glad we made the effort.