Nine months ago yesterday I moved to a city three hours from my hometown. It has been an exhilarating experience and it has been daunting at times. Three hours doesn’t seem like a far distance, but I feel like I have moved to another planet. I have been ribbed about my accent, I have been taunted about my faith and I really haven’t made any friends, especially at work.

Tonight a friend called me as I was driving home. I met this particular friend at a Divorce Recovery group over ten years ago. We have had so many wonderful times together and the conversations we have are never stilted or forced. She knows me like the back of her hand and I know tons of her secrets. I miss the times we ran over to each others homes in our pajamas because one in “our group” was having a crisis. I miss the times when we stayed up late discussing our dreams and our disappointments. I miss the closeness we had when we lived in the same town. We have kept in touch by phone and I know that this is a friendship that will last until the end of time.

I miss my church friends in my hometown. We raised our children together. We worshipped at the same church for over thirty years. We cried together, laughed together and alternately almost had nervous breakdowns while raising our children. I miss them and I always will. They are the type of friends that I could call tonight and they would drop what they were doing and listen to me whine and I would do the same for them.

Girlfriends are better than counselors, girlfriends understand how one can grieve for over ten years when a marriage breaks up, and girlfriends bleed when one of the group gets a cut.

I miss my friends and I thank God that these women came to me at different times in my life. I pray that in my new location I will meet other women friends, it just doesn’t seem the same without having a best buddy to share my day or to have someone to vent to.

Yes, I miss my friends, but they are only a phone call away…I better start dialing.

Sincerely,
Sandy

© Copyright 2006, Sandy Fulton
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