I was talking to my friend Jessica the other day about different "levels" of friends. We all have them. Friends we work with, friends we know from our childhood, friends who are parents of our children's friends, friends who are neighbors, friends who will be in our lives forever, and friends who may not be in our lives for long but who still make a difference. And then there are our "foxhole" friends- those friends who, when the chips are down, when you need someone in your corner, when you are most desperate, when you have nowhere else to turn, when all hope seems lost, when you can't see 5 feet in front of you, these are the friends you turn to.
Your foxhole friends are those friends who you may see often or only once in a great while, and yet, you know they have your back. Your foxhole friends are friends who will drop everything if they can to be by your side, and if they can't drop everything, they will stay with you on the phone for an hour, or two, or three, just to make sure you are ok and to make sure you know you are not alone. These friends are the ones who accept you as you are, at your worst and at your greatest. These are friends who question you because you need to be questioned, they are friends who stand by your side but not necessarily silently so. These are friends who you know have the gumption to stand up to you and the keen sense of when to be still. These are friends who will weather the storm with you, who will help you rebuild, and who will leave you when you need to stand on your own.
These friends, these foxhole friends, are the ones we dream about at night when we're running away from some great fear. In our dreams they are by our side battling whatever we are wrestling with in our subconscious because in our life they are there to battle whatever looms ahead. These friends enjoy with us the fruits of our labor, they relish our accomplishments as much as we do ourselves, they jump as high as we do for joy, and they sit by our side and hold our head as we cry ourselves to sleep. They are our friends, these foxhole friends, but they are more. They are our chosen partners through life, they are our chosen siblings when we are far from family, they are our chosen gifts who come to us and never let go.
This is the life.
- a
Your foxhole friends are those friends who you may see often or only once in a great while, and yet, you know they have your back. Your foxhole friends are friends who will drop everything if they can to be by your side, and if they can't drop everything, they will stay with you on the phone for an hour, or two, or three, just to make sure you are ok and to make sure you know you are not alone. These friends are the ones who accept you as you are, at your worst and at your greatest. These are friends who question you because you need to be questioned, they are friends who stand by your side but not necessarily silently so. These are friends who you know have the gumption to stand up to you and the keen sense of when to be still. These are friends who will weather the storm with you, who will help you rebuild, and who will leave you when you need to stand on your own.
These friends, these foxhole friends, are the ones we dream about at night when we're running away from some great fear. In our dreams they are by our side battling whatever we are wrestling with in our subconscious because in our life they are there to battle whatever looms ahead. These friends enjoy with us the fruits of our labor, they relish our accomplishments as much as we do ourselves, they jump as high as we do for joy, and they sit by our side and hold our head as we cry ourselves to sleep. They are our friends, these foxhole friends, but they are more. They are our chosen partners through life, they are our chosen siblings when we are far from family, they are our chosen gifts who come to us and never let go.
This is the life.
- a
LOVE.
ReplyDelete