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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Barb Rankin, I used to be a Girl Scout and my mom was the Cookie Chairman one year, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share a lesson about the joy that friendship can bring.
Fun Fact:
Girl Scout cookies are sold every year, and I don’t know about you, but I have trouble walking by the tables set up outside the grocery store without buying some! The Girl Scouts were originally established as the Girl Guides of America on March 12, 1912, by Juliette “Daisy” Gordon Low, in Savannah, Georgia. They changed their name to the Girl Scouts in 1913, and moved their headquarters to Washington, D.C. They published their first songbook, in 1925, and it is believed to have contained the song, “Make New Friends.” The author is unknown. This popular song is often sung in a round, and the lyrics are as follows:
Make new friends, but keep the old.
One is silver, the other is gold.
A circle is round, it has no end.
That’s how long, I will be your friend.
What I Learned Yesterday:
When you hear the word, “friends,” what do think of first? Is it a good personal friend, maybe your BFF? Is it the TV show that aired for 10 seasons, beginning in 1994? Is it a song, such as “Whenever I Call You Friend,” written by Kenny Loggins and Melissa Manchester, and released in 1978? Do you think of Quakers, who are more formally known as The Religious Society of Friends?
What image does the word “friend” evoke for you?
According to the Merriam-Webster on line dictionary, the definition of “friend,” is a person who you like and enjoy being with, or a person who helps or supports someone or something. Today, social media allows us to connect with friends both old and new. On Facebook, you can find people that you haven’t seen since elementary school with a few clicks.
More than 40 years ago, I was statistician for the men’s basketball team at the college I attended. When the team traveled, I went with them on the bus, as did the cheerleaders, the PR rep, and the team’s equipment managers. I struck up a friendship with the cheerleaders and, at the end of my freshman year, one of them invited me to be her roommate the following year. So I joined her in a 4 bedroom suite with 6 other women, living on campus. I only lived in the suite one year, as my roommate graduated the following spring and I went back to the main dormitory, but that one year of developing a friendship with each of those women was to become something special that lasts even today.
A few years after college, one of these women thought it would be a great idea for us to have a reunion, to catch up on what everyone had been doing. I wasn’t able to attend the first reunion, but I was there for the second one, shortly after my separation and subsequent divorce. It was the tonic I needed. We were all Christian believers, and sharing our stories and caring for each other gave me support in a way that I hadn’t felt for several years. For the past 30 years, we have met every two to three years at someone’s home to share and celebrate our friendship. Not everyone has made every reunion, but when we spend time together, it is time focused on each other, caring for each other, listening to each other, praying for each other.
We’ve been through trials and tribulations – divorce, infertility, serious health issues, the loss of children, siblings, and parents. We’ve celebrated great joys – weddings, birth of children, weddings of children, birth of grandchildren.
I can’t imagine my life without these women. And when I finally retire, I plan to live near at least one of them, and continue the friendship and love that has been a bond between us for so long.
There is poem, author unknown, about friendship and the types of friends we have over our lifetime. Many of you may have heard this before:
Reason, Season, or Lifetime
People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime.
When you figure out which one it is, you will know what to do for each person.
When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed.
They have come to assist you through a difficulty; to provide you with guidance and support; to aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually.
They may seem like a godsend, and they are.
They are there for the reason you need them to be.
Then, without any wrongdoing on your part or at an inconvenient time,
this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end.
Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away.
Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand.
What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled; their work is done.
The prayer you sent up has been answered and now it is time to move on.
Some people come into your life for a SEASON, because your turn has come to share, grow or learn.
They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh.
They may teach you something you have never done.
They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy.
Believe it. It is real. But only for a season.
LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons; things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation.
Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person, and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life.
It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.
— Unknown
Here’s what I learned.
I have had friends for a reason, a season and a lifetime. Each friend is cherished for the impact that they have had in my life and joy that they have brought me. Does every friendship have a happy ending? No. But each friendship has a purpose.
Think about your friends. Are they a reason, a season, or a lifetime? Cherish them. Learn from them. Teach them. Spend time with them. Tell them how much you love and appreciate them. It’s all part of the beauty of the joy of friendship.
I’m Barb Rankin and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.
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