Today (April 2) should be a most enjoyable day. Already the sun is shining through the window as I sit and write. Birds are helping to announce the birth of a new day. The promise of another spring season is upon us.
I am enjoying fresh brewed coffee and making plans for this glorious day.

A lunch date with a dear friend is one of my highlights of the day. Our girls are now young women, one with two children of her own now. It seems so trite to say ‘where does the time go?’ but I cannot coin a phrase of my own to describe the passing of the years. I can reach back into the caverns of memories and recall when these two little girls were happy playing with Barbies, making plans for overnight stays, walking to the party store for candy, discussing who likes who….those childhood and adolescent days are now in the rear view mirror of life.

Graduations from high school and university have been achieved, weddings planned and now the life of marriage is the current theme for these women. Hurts and disappointments entered that mix, yet healing has come and the promise of new love has settled on the horizon of being cherished. The deep bond found in a good friendship sustained the pain and celebrated the long awaited joy that comes in the morning, those times in life when ‘beauty comes from ashes’.

Having and cherishing a best friend is a gift. Sometimes one may have more than one ‘bestie’ (today’s new term) but I believe we all need at least one best friend, the kind of friend that accepts you with all of your quirks and flaws, a friend who will get in the pit of despair with you, roll around in the dirt and hurt of life and not complain the entire time–the kind of friend who will laugh with you over absolute nonsense until tears roll down cheeks, or during life’s most serious moments, offers a hug and a simple, warm profound ‘I love you’.

Yes, today, I will spend time with a bestie along with her daughter, her two grandchildren, and my daughter. We will talk about the years that have gone by, we will laugh in the moment and we will share our dreams and thoughts for the future. We won’t attempt to solve the problems in the world because we know that isn’t the definition and purpose for our grand friendships. However, if conversation does turn to current events and what lies ahead we will encourage one another with the truth and true basis of our close knit connection, that God is in control and that we give Him thanks and praise for being our Heavenly Father, for His care, protection, provision, guidance, and love. After that we will return to the simplicity and silliness of being each other’s bestie and enjoying the short time we have together today, knowing that we will soon part for the day with the hope and promise of enjoying another girls only lunch date.