My Very Best Friend In The Whole World, Mary

Today is her birthday. 

Here's a photo taken of me with Mary and our science club at Malabar Elementary school. I am seated on the far left, then my best friend Mary is seated one person away from me with the glasses.  She was my BFF then and has been throughout my life. Here's how our story began: 

  I can remember the first day I met her.  She had just started school having moved to our neighborhood from Denver, Colorado. We were in the 3rd grade.  The moment I saw her I said to myself "I want to be that girls friend!"  I walked over to her and asked her if she wanted to come and watch a play that my friends and I were putting on in the school yard.  She said okay and from that moment on, we became fast friends.   We have shared so many wonderful moments together growing up and going to elementary, junior high and high school together.  When we were teenagers we would talk endlessly on the phone every night even though we'd have spent the whole day  talking to each other.  I loved spending time at her house. She was from a big family and I envied the fact that she had older brothers and an older sister. Her dad and my mom took turns driving us to the friday night dances at the high school. We were pretty much inseparable until we went our separate ways for college. Even then we'd write to each other and kept in touch with each others lives.  We have shared all the big celebrations of life together: graduations from college, marriage and  children and have weathered sad moments of loss with one another as well. Our friendship has been one of my most treasured gifts in life. Our story of friendship from childhood through adulthood fills me with joy and gratitude.   She is my oldest and dearest soul mate friend.    

I could not ask for a better  " best friend" than Mary.

Here's to you Mary! Wishing you every joy and happiness!   I treasure all the years and all the memories we've shared. No one could ever take your place in my life.  You are my dearest and best  friend. 
Happy, Happy Birthday to you!



Best Friends
A Warm Refuge

by Madisyn Taylor

Our best friends are a warm refuge in which we feel free to be fully ourselves.

By the time we reach adulthood, many of us have had the good fortune to have at least one best friend. If we have moved around or changed our life situation repeatedly, we may be lucky enough to have had several. The best friend relationship is often our earliest intimate peer relationship, and it can be a source of great warmth and connection throughout our lives. The details of best friendship change as we grow up and grow older, but the heart of it remains the same. Our best friends are a warm refuge in which we feel free to be fully ourselves, to share our deepest secrets, to rest when we are tired, to celebrate when we are happy—a place in which we feel utterly welcome to give and receive that most precious of all gifts, love. 

Most intimate relationships hit bumps from time to time, and one of the hallmarks of an enduring best friendship is its ability to ride out the turbulence and remain intact even as it faces changes. Our best friends are those who manage to love us through all of our transitions, as we do the same for them. We find ways to embrace and appreciate the differences that set us apart and offer love and support no matter what. We allow each other to be exactly as we are at a given moment, even as we allow each other to change over time. In this way, best friends sometimes feel like family. We know we will stick together regardless of where our individual paths lead.

We may be on the phone with our best friends every day, or we may not have spoken for a year, yet we know that our bond will be strong and immediate when we do connect. This bond ties us together even when we are apart and draws us blissfully back into the warm refuge of each other’s company when our paths bring us together again. 

Here's Mary with her husband David a few days ago on Thanksgiving with our family.

And here's one when we were kids in junior high school. I'm on the far upper left and that's Mary with the glasses and plaid vest.  Just one image among a life time of shared memories. Love my BFF!