.

I made a new friend. And she just left from our first play date. I'm good at being interested in new (and known) people, I am not so good at making plans to spend time with them for some reason. So I was happy to have committed to and followed through with a play date. Every week I make a list of friends I want to see or have Zane spent time with, but somehow I never make it enough of a priority and we end up with a spontaneous park day without friends.

So this new friend, the more and more I come to learn of her and her life, the more interesting she becomes. It's fascinating to me the variety of benefits that come from having
friends. Some become emotional support systems for a hard day. Some always have a great story to make you laugh. Some have great teaching/ educational ideas for children. Some are spiritual beacons. Some are wildly positive and uplifting just to be around. I'm glad I learned an important lesson in my mid 20's that no one can be all of this in one person. In addition to the lesson that you can never have too many friends, and that there is almost always something to learn from someone else.

So now I get to remember that it's not a game of weighing how much I offer back in exchange for what I gain. Just keep befriending and being who you are. Don't worry about the scale of expert levels you each have on your talents list, it may never feel perfectly equal. And it doesn't have to be. Just as I cannot expect another person to be everything, I also cannot expect that of myself.

The thing I love about my new friend is I got to meet her at a time in my life that I am really wanting to feed my family better. I have been thinking of resources to collect for reading material and discussion. And as it turns out, she is incredibly educated and passionate about this area of her life. She fills me with inspiration already and has me thinking about things I wasn't thinking about yesterday. Things I want to do to better nourish the bodies of my family and in turn, their minds. I don't mean just food pyramid wellness, but more in-depth discussion about pesticides and other environmental concerns I have been really lazy about learning.

I really do think we bump into people at times in our lives that we need to. That's it's not an accident.