Tag: friends

Rude Awakenings.

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There are few things like losing a job to inform you of who your real friends are. While I was praying and fasting and praying some more, my husband soon discovered that the vast majority of the people who he knew as friends would not even return his phone calls or text messages once word got around concerning what had happened to him. I was completely prepared for that, what I was not prepared for was the extent to which some of his older friends responded, or rather the extent to which they did not respond.

The last job my husband had left to join this company that ultimately fired him was the company that had brought him to this country and they got into a bidding war with the company my husband ultimately joined. The company that had originally hired him actually bid higher, but my husband decided to join the new company with its new opportunities. Now I was left to rethink whether those 14 years of opportunities were worth the severed ties and closed doors that were a part of our constant existence now. Sorry does not even begin to describe how I felt.

Art Collaboration Part 5 B – Embellishment with friends.

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20141213_070057This is my piece (I did the same texture as I did for the butterfly piece) for the Christmas gift project I worked on with some of my friends (the butterfly piece was where I worked out ideas and used extra paint). I really love this piece that was created with me in mind. I also love, even more, how each of our choices resulted in beautiful and wonderful gifts.

Friends. How many of us have them?

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friendsYesterday evening, I found myself reading Adrienne’s blog post about friends. It reminded me of a moment I had way way back when I graduated high school. I had received gifts from family, friends and mentors. There was a card, though, that I wasn’t sure how I felt about. It basically said that learning how to let go of people with grace and without bitterness was one of life’s great lessons, oh and congratulations on the graduation. At the time I was like, “What?” I don’t want to let go of my friends. I LOVE my friends. Do you know that in the next four or five years life wrestled every single one of my “closest” friends from me? I still had good new friends, but my high school buddies were all gone. At first I was salty about it because I would occasionally try to keep in touch and folks didn’t seem to care. Using up my postage. LOL. In time, though, I came to the realization that we led different lives and that was okay too. I’ve had great friends since then and I have great friends now, but I know how to lovingly and gracefully let them go when our reason or season for being friends has come to an end. My mentor who gave me the card was very right. It has been one of the greatest lessons I have learned.

Endings.

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everafterI know it’s still July, technically, but today feels like Fall is in the air in my corner of the Pacific Northwest, which marks the end of Summer and all of the neat stuff that comes along with it. I hate when I am meeting with a group of friends and that has to come to an end because one of the friends has an opportunity or a new relationship where they have to do that “can’t-get-enough-of-being-around-you” phase. I mean, I’m happy for the friend’s relationship or opportunity, but a teeny selfish part of me wishes that things could remain the way they are, especially when I think about all the ways being around them has made me want to and become a better person.