I am writing this on Saturday night, in anticipation of a Sunday afternoon gathering with friends. We are a group of friends that have grown up together. We fondly call our group “The Oglesby Girls”. Most of us grew up in Oglesby and started kindergarten together at Holy Family School, another joined us later in grade school then two others joined in high school.

Sadly, we lost one of our “girls” to cancer. We have shared weddings, the birth of children, the loss of parents, and divorce. We have donated together on large projects for Holy Family Church, even though only three of us remain parishioners because the rest of the group lives out of town. We still manage to get together and celebrate our friendship. The bond of our affection is strong. Many have commented on the steadfastness of our little group when I talk about our gatherings and escapades. Our friendships, and I would also include friendships from high school and those formed in our small rural area, are rare, enduring and admired by others I have encountered in life. Our lives have changed in so many ways but despite 50 years, we still have fun like the girls who headed to Friday night football and basketball games.

I have mentioned recently that I work part time for an online ministry. In the role of Director of Programming for Ignatian Ministries, I work on our community retreats, customer support and the coordination of our weekly blog, which is published on Sunday nights and is shared in an email on Monday morning. Over the past few weeks our core team and supporting “team” members have been writing the blog related to our ministry founding and purpose. I wrote the post, last week, on Community. I shared three examples of scripture quotes and personal experiences that I felt the support of community. As we discerned moving to a non-profit, and ways we want to serve others, one of the founding principles is community, accompanying and supporting others who are seeking the deeper waters of faith.

As I reflect on my small group of friends, I believe that we have embodied all of the aspects of community that I wrote about last week. We have created a space that we know we belong and are always welcomed. We are there to support each other, especially when we experience the difficult losses of family and friends. We encourage each other as we each use our individual gifts in life, regardless of the various paths our lives have taken.

If you are lucky enough to have friendships like this, treasure them! If you didn’t come upon them from childhood or young adult years, perhaps there are friendships that you developed in work or church communities. How can you nurture those friendships? Is there someone you would like to get to know better; someone you feel could be soul friend, someone you could support and you would welcome support from? What step can you take to get to know that person better?

I close with a quote from Thomas Aquinas, “There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.” Amen!

Create Joy! Deena