To good friends

Last night I went out with a group of my friends to hear another friends band. Big deal you say, do it all the time.
But what is special about this group of friends is that we have been friends, some of us, since we were 6 years old. (I'll let you do the math).
Some of us have known each other since grade school, some since junior high and some since high school, but the point is that we have known each other for a very, very long time. We are all very different. Two are still married to their high school boyfriends, a couple of us have been married and single for a very long time and one just found her independence from an unhealthy long term relationship and joined us for the first time in a long time. Our life experiences have taken put us on many varied paths from one who has just gotten her first job, to a professional geologist and everything in between. Some have been thru the loss of parents, other experiencing the transition of becoming the caretakers of elderly parents.

I ask you, is there anything better then having a group of people who knew you when? They knew you when you kissed your first boyfriend in 3rd grade. They were with you as a cheerleader, when the school bullies ganged up on you, when you got your first real boyfriend, husband, kids, etc. They remember you as a gawky kid, a skinny teenager and a rebellious twenty something.
Marriages came along, so did kids. Life took us in different directions and before email, we sometimes lost touch with each other except for christmas cards and word of mouth thru one or the other of us. But when it is all said and done, they are the real friends in life. Even thogh you might not see for months, sometimes even years, when you do it is like the time has never passed. And I positively know that if I ever found myself in need of any one of them, they would be there for me, as I would them, in a heartbeat.

I love the fact that as middle aged women we have found ourselves and each other once again. We can laugh at our wrinkles, and sagging asses. We can oh and ah over grand kids. We can compare notes about middle age dating misadventures. But what is so very cool is that we have all turned into awesome, independant and beautfiul women. We go out and have fun letting loose in a way that we never would have in our youth. We don't care if anyone laughs at us or thinks we are crazy. We are. We are crazy with the freedom to be our own women in the company of girls who knew us when!

To all of you "girls". I love you and cherish your friendship that after a literal lifetime you are once again and still in my life. You are all FABULOUS!