Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Being a Friend


The two girls slowly made their way into the surf. My daughter, Hannah, who is usually adventurous and confident, was not eager to get into the gulf waters. She held back, shaking her head and turning away as if to walk back to where I sat under the brightly-colored beach umbrella. Her friend was standing in waist-deep water urging her to come on....

Sarah talked to her; I talked to her, but Hannah still didn't want to commit herself to the ocean's waves. She had seen a clear strip of dots and was worried that jelly fish were nearby. The clear water was cool and inviting, yet still she lingered near shore.

I watched as Sarah walked back to her... their heads bending together in conversation. Finally, Sarah took Hannah's hand and the two of them made their way into deeper water. Side-by-side, one step at a time.

Watching them made me think about friendship. How sometimes we need a friend to encourage us from a distance, giving us advice and supporting our decisions. And how, at other times, we need a friend to help us through rough waters, holding our hand every step of the way.

It seems that friendship is on a few of our minds lately. Peggy also wrote on this topic in her recent post at Middle Age Ramblings.

12 comments:

Jeanne Oliver said...

Great post and I love the photo!!

miruspeg said...

I love being on the same wavelength with you Roban.

If I didn't have friends then I'd just be mad, I think, because everything would be internal whereas with my friends I can speak to them and just discuss everything and change my opinion if they have got something, you know some different opinion or good advice.... just like what Sarah must have said to Hannah.

Friends can engage in very deep and meaningful discussion and can disagree without falling out.

Blog friends are made of this. You see, these are not “my readers.” They read my posts, I read their posts, but there is a lot more to it and we often don’t need too many words to know that what we have is special and unbreakable.

I was not looking for virtual friendship when I entered the blogosphere, but the friendships that have developed online have been a wonderful surprise. (Kind of like getting a present when it’s not Christmas or your birthday.)

I smiled when you wrote these words on my latest post:
"I have a little space to fill with new ones"!.....me too!!

Love
Peggy

McMGrad89 said...

Your daughter is lucky to have a friend to hold her hand through the "rough water."

Friends are the theme of the week obviously. Great minds do think alike.

My friend Shan is also writing about friendship.

I love when everything comes together like that.

Heather of the EO said...

Oh my... I love the photo!

I felt like I was watching them with you through your words.

I really don't know what I would do without a lot of encouragement and hand-holding from friends. Lovely post!

Jen said...

How beautiful...and what a great picture!

beth said...

hi roban...
thanks for the sweet words you left on my blog...... and your photography is just wonderful, too !

I love anything at the beach...especially photos !

{i have another blog home that is pretty new to me...myunmadelife.blogspot.com if you have time to visit there, too}

carrhop said...

Love the photo and love your writing! What a precious blessing friends are!

Blessings!

Silver said...

I like what you said about how friendship is like.

I think blogging is like my lifeline. I blog to keep my sanity. Does that make sense?

I find total strangers becoming friends who are connected to me in a warm way- where i am comfortable to pour my heart out. It feels comforted to be heard and even greater a lesson to learn to listen.

~Silver

Sara said...

Roban,

What a lovely post about friendship! You are so right that we all need friends.

To me friends are the people who share your laughter, joy and sadness. Most of all, they are the ones who stay with you even when you say go away!

Monica said...

How beautiful Roban!

Steph at Problem Solvin' Mom said...

A wonderful gift for certain! Love the photo!! :)

Sarah said...

Roban, thanks for stoping by to visit. it brought me over to your lovely Moments in Time. Love your idea of photo of your feet and where they've been. Clever!
I used to hike some with a friend, and anytime we reached a peek, we took a shot of our shoes hanging out over the edge. ;-)
Happy 4th of July! ~ Sarah