Forever Friends

It all started with a dream I had a few nights ago. I was accused of something. Some of the accusers were old friends. It seemed that everyone was against me. One person, a friend I met in college, stood up for me. In the dream, she traveled for miles and suffered several hardships in defense of me. Ironically, I haven't talked to this friend for over two years. I am ashamed to say that I now live about 20 minutes from her and I still haven't called her. This dream started my reflections on friends.

A month and a half ago we got together with some friends for dinner. I call these girls my Salinas Sisters. You know those kind of friends. We had our babies together. We got up at 5:30am to exercise together. We helped each other through those rough times. We were each others family. We spent six hours talking, laughing, eating. (All good times involve food, right?) Even if we don't see each other often, you can just pick up where you left off.

One day, after I moved to Salinas, I had a day of homesickness. I missed the family and friends we'd left in Logan. On this day, I got a call from one of these Salinas Sisters. It was a business call about something for primary, not necessarily a call about being my friend. A thought came into my head, "If you hadn't moved from Logan, you never would have met Nikki Welker."
Salinas proved to be a great move for our family. We met and loved so many people that we never would have known had we not wanted to leave our comfort zone of Logan.

Now here we are again. It's been over a year. I've made friends, I have. I still feel like the new kid on the block. I still miss Second Sunday. I miss our 10pm chick flick movie going. I miss our Stake Conference picnic on the beach. I miss birthday lunches. I miss park day. I miss the salty moist air of living by the ocean. (Does that have anything to do with friendship?)

Everybody needs a friend. The kind of friend that you're not embarrassed if they come in and sweep your floor. The kind of friend you can cry to when you get called to the principal's office. The kind of friend that you can drop the kids off in a moments notice. Luckily, wherever I go, I seem to find these friends.