the first day

women's friendships have always been an important part of my life.

i can still remember favorite games that i played with girls in grade school.  barbie "towns" set up for days behind chairs and couchs, with friends coming over to continue the saga until my mother went nuts and the community  had to be taken down until next time.  then sleepovers in jr high and high school.  with staying up talking all night long.  i still have a very important, 750 mile friendship with a friend that during my jr high years lived next to my grandmother in South Dakota and we still stay in contact as much as we can through all that life has brought us.

friendships with women change as you marry and then have children.  you then look for someone you again have something in common with.  and that bond is set again, and it is strong.  you now talk to each other about things like what to make for dinner, how to stretch the budget, what to do for a fun, cheap, date night.   and then when the children come....those secrets questions of birth, that know one else talks about, how to live without sleep, how to live with this little one, how you ever lived without this little one, and "could you please babysit this little one?". 

now, as a new grandmother, after i've shown the grandbaby pixs to all the relatives and co-workers who do i really want to show them off to?   my girlfriends!!!!!

i can't imagine my life with out my women friends, my girlfriends.  they "get me".

there is nothing like the word GIRLFRIEND. 

guys don't have it.  they have their friends and they say they are going out with "the guys" but it's not the same.  it is stronger for us.  did you ever hear your husband say "i'd like you to meet my boyfriend, so-and-so"?

i came across this quote in one of my new favorite books this week:

"Any woman alone without friends to sustain her, to nurture and support, to hold with loving arms, like a single thread, is weak.  but the weaving, the loving, the nurturing of others, the networks of friendship makes her strong."

1994  The Kinship of Women  Maryjane's Ideabook, Cookbook, and Lifebook  2005.