Lingering With Friends

My mom, Carol, and I went out to lunch recently.  After we finished eating, we lingered for awhile just chatting.  It was wonderful!  I consider Carol as my mentor.  She is an older and wiser woman.  She has the sweet aroma of Jesus wherever she goes.

I was thinking about how seldom friends linger with each other anymore.  Everyone is too busy.  It took me back to my college years.  The couples in the picture are my college friends.  All of us girls met our freshmen year of college and have been best friends ever since.

We were in each other's weddings, went to all the baby showers, grieved when Sandy lost her husband, and now we are all attending each other's children's weddings.  We try and get together at least once a year and catch up on each other's lives.

In college, we knew how to linger.  We would linger in our dorm rooms for hours just talking.  We'd go exploring around the mountains near our college together.  We'd lay on our towels at the beach dreaming together.  We'd go out for chips and salsa and laugh the night away.  We'd escape to each other's homes for the weekends. We loved being together.

Those times built deep roots of friendship.  We all feel a bond together from all that time we lingered together really getting to know what was on each other's heart.  What we each wanted out of life.  We shared disappointments that we experienced in this long journey called life.

I have been blessed with an amazing circle of friends.  Our husbands all enjoy each other and have been growing old together also.  We are all still married to the husbands of our youth, except Sandy who lost her first husband to a brain tumor.  Three of the couples are not in the picture.  This was taken after Alyssa's wedding. 

We will all be attending Sandy's son's wedding in June.  I can't wait.  There is nothing like lingering for several days with good, old friends!

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

Proverbs 17:17

TGIF, Grateful For..., Friendship Friday