*Friendship is a sheltering tree* Samuel T. Coleridge

Christmas is the quintessential time of year for catching up with friends, new and old.  Today was especially special (if that's possible?) because I curled up in a coffee shop this morning and chatted with an out-of-town best friend, for two hours, long after the coffee was gone. Then tonight, I got a surprise phone call from a friend that I haven’t spoken to in nearly two months.  It got me thinking about friendship. I consider these girls some of my very best friends in the whole wide world, and yet due to the daily grind of careers, families, commitments, and the miles of highway between us, we don’t get to speak (or see each other, for that matter) all that often.  Even though we may not know every detail of each other’s day to day life like we once did when we were in high school or college, the great thing about our friendship is that we can always pick up right where we left off. It’s never awkward. It’s never forced or obligatory.  We understand each other and feelings don’t get hurt if phone calls aren’t returned for a week or two.  Most friendships will start to drift if they are nurtured regularly and if purposeful efforts aren’t made to stay close.

It’s rare to find the sort of friendship that remains strong regardless of lapses in communication.  It’s the type of friendship that will always be there.  You know when those sweet, yet rare, opportunities arise where you actually get to spend time together, face to face, that it will be as though you saw each other yesterday and the day before.  Nothing ever changes. It’s the type of friendship that is so deeply rooted, it doesn’t need much maintenance.  I like to think of it as a large oak tree. Steadfast, unwavering, and constant. Providing shelter from stormy weather when it’s needed and strong branches to sit and dangle our legs from on sunshiny days. And since I don’t have a real-live sister, I feel so incredibly fortunate to have several friends that I have this sort of “sisterly” relationship with.  Whatever life throws our way (through marriage, motherhood, joy, and loss), I will always have someone to share it with. Even when we are all ninety years old and crotchety as hell with blue hair and failing bladders, I know that I will have a cantankerous collection of elderly women within telephone's reach.

Being blessed in this life with a single friendship such as this would be enough of a treasure, but I have undeservedly been blessed over and over again with a small, beautiful orchard of trees.