Friends Lost and Found

As I was thinking about what to blog on, my current situation keeps coming to mind. For the past three weeks I’ve been dealing with some interesting back problems. The worse part is it causes pain in my right leg which makes driving a very unpleasant experience. I’ve been to the chiropractor three times and he believes we’re making progress.

I don’t know about you, but I find it difficult to ask others for help. I find it easy to help others and get upset with family members and friends when they won’t ask for help, but yet…I don’t like asking. This past week I was headed to another state to see family. I had to swallow my pride and ask a friend if she possibly could go with me, and if she wouldn’t mind driving. Of course, she was more than willing to go and do the driving.

At the hotel room, noticing I was in pain putting on my shoes, my niece offered to help me out. By the second day, her year and a half old daughter was handing my shoes to her mother to help me with! We had a good laugh.

This week I’m housebound by doctor’s orders. After eating popcorn for supper, waffles for lunch and overly ripe bananas, when a friend called asking if I needed anything from the grocery store, I hesitated. My mind was screaming “YES! There’s no food in the house”, but my pride was telling me to remain quiet. Picking up on my silence, my friend said, “Let me rephrase that. I’m headed to the grocery store. What was it that you wanted me to pick up?” We both had a good laugh and I’m thrilled that I’ll have real food for tonight’s dinner! I can now toss out the milk that I’m pretty sure has gone sour!

Another friend who knows I don’t like being stuck at home, sends me cute little emails or Facebook comments to keep me encouraged.

We all need close friends in our lives. Not because they’ll pitch in and help us out, but because they allow us to put our guard down, our pride aside, and just be real with each other. One of my guy friends loves to show up at my house every couple of months to ask me what needs to be done. He knows if he asks in advance, I’ll tell him “nothing”, but he knows as a single woman there are things I need help with.

As the lyrics of “That’s What Friends Are For” says…
“Keep smilin’, keep shinin’
Knowin’ you can always count on me, for sure
That’s what friends are for
For good times and bad times
I’ll be on your side forever more
That’s what friends are for”

Yeah, I’m thankful for friends.

Tags: care, friends

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 8:05 pm and is filed under Readers stories, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.