June 5 The Many Faces of Friendship

I recently saw an article describing the qualities and habits of people who live past the age of 100, the majority of which happen to be women. One item on the list was a having a friend network in place. As I showed this to a friend, he quickly pointed out that the REAL reason there were almost no men on the list was because they had been henpecked to death by the women and their friends! Pure speculation on his part.

I saw a cute picture of a mouse that accompanied an article. It described how mice living in a community where they had opportunities to play and have fun, lived longer, healthier lives than those who were isolated and without other mouse buddies. Being an anti social hermit recluse might sound appealing to some, but it might come at a cost. Even rats and mice enjoy friends and companionship.

Whether you have 2 friends or 100, it's something that adds to a general sense of well being. I conducted an informal survey recently and each person said they liked having a friend who shared some quirky interest. Here are some of their descriptions when I asked them what brought them together as buds.

 "We share a love of junk shop exploring..she knows how to find treasures to make into art pieces she sells at local fairs. I love her creativity and ability to inspire mine as well."

"My friend will call me at the last minute to run out for Pad Thai and ask me about the latest poems I've written. Her encouraging words help me stay on track."

"I have two friends who want to be stand up comics...we get together and they try their new material out on me. We do this at each other's places now as we got too loud with all our laughing when we met at restaurants."

"I love getting together with my friend Lissa as she takes me to the nearest chocolate shop and we nibble our way down the display, sampling as many flavors as we can. The weirder the flavor, the better. One had beer and peppercorns. After that, we head out for coffee and to talk about the short stories we both write."

Today, make a mental note of the friendships you enjoy and how they add something special to your life every day.

photos by DS Woodard

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