A river takes a journey, quite a journey.  It is a journey of rises and falls, twists and turns, with little streams feeding it and through smalls channels feeding it into a much larger and stronger river. There are bends that come up where the unknown lies beyond.  Much life lies within that river but also much can lost within it.  To me a river can mimic a friendship.

I have been blessed to experience the joy and wonder of many friendships throughout my life.  As an elementary student they consisted of small neighborhood kids feeding and molding what friendship looks like.  For the most part those friendships were a simple game of tag. riding our bikes together, carefree and at times wild but never stretching our wings too far from home.  High school brought me into different channels with a new school and new friends that I hold dear to my heart to this day. We had fun; a lot of fun.  I at times hid my vulnerabilities behind their confidences and I want to believe that is what made us the friends that we are.  We had the same likes and dislikes be it boys, music, and really what else is there in high school to dwell on?  As life moved on and more adult relationships evolved and children came into my life there were not as many opportunities to explore those adult relationships as deep as I would have liked.  Those children’s needs, work, and housework all called my name.  Days (and nights) were chaotic and the currents of the friendships or lack of at times seemed to pull me under.  It seemed that many days I thought the only friend I had was in the form of a little blonde child who never left my side.  I was starved at times for adult conversation and was richly blessed to be able to call my mother and grandmother both my friend and they were actively in my life to which I could lean on them for friendship and find some calm.  As the children grew older and more independent I was able to once again look to build relationships with some special people that remain so very close to my heart to this day and found my head above water and floating peacefully along with the current.

As a river at times have rapids, friendships gothrough tumultuous times.  There unfortunately have been friendships in my life that simply have run their course and I miss those people immensely.  They served a purpose and I am thankful for the time I had them in my life.  I am a firm believer that the Lord brings everyone into our lives for a reason, most often for those lessons learned.  As I have gotten older though I have learned that I do not need to have an immense amount of friends or 1,000 Facebook friends.  The ones that hold me as close to their heart as I them and the few that I can travel along the river of life peacefully and know they have my hand when I need to be assisted through the rough waters of the river of life is what is most important now.  So as I look at this picture of the river I see the friendships that have flowed along just as they have in my life.  There are some that did not get in the water but remained on the banks and cheered me on.  The paths of the rivers were not always straight and we entered some unknowns with winding curves and hit some big rocks that rocked us to our cores. Often we had to adapt to the ever-changing current and bends along the way which simply brought strength and at times a new chapter in my life and the life of my friend.

What is your goal in any friendship that you may have? Are your friendships genuine and important enough that you open your heart to them willingly?  The river has one goal and that is to make it to the sea.  If you look at any river’s path to the sea you see it’s not straight; it has quite a journey to get there.  Any relationship each of us takes on in life is just as tough and certainly full of strong currents pulling you in every direction and a bend that leads to an unknown.  I know that in any of my friendships it would be my aspiration to have made a strong impact that when I was to leave this earth my friends would still look to me as a friend, one that they hold close for a lifetime.  I would have reached my goal; such as the river having made it to the sea.