Everyone has a few easy friends. Get your minds out of the gutter people. The easy friends I am talking about are the one that you can totally let your guard down around. Sometimes they take years to cultivate-these easy friendships. But sometimes if you are really lucky, they are instant-like lighting a match-you meet and are instant “old” friends.
Either way, they’re like family in the sense that you know they will stick around no matter how much you screw up. You can call in a lurch. You can be called in a lurch. You think alike. You act alike. You parent alike. No matter what favor you ask-if they say yes you can expect it with no strings attached. You treat each other with mutual respect and kindness so there are few screw ups to begin with. Ok, so maybe they’re not at all like family.
Before we moved here a Momma friend from The Middle One’s preschool caught me in the hall to tell me her cousin was also moving here from Pennsylvania at the same time. I was both excited and nervous. What if it didn’t work? What if our kids didn’t get along? What if we didn’t get along? This was more pressure than a blind date.
Out of sheer desperation on both of our parts, we made contact, and to my absolute surprise-she quickly became an easy friend. Her kids are great. She is great. I am so lucky.
The kids were all together yesterday and I couldn’t help think-this family makes us feel like we aren’t new here. They help us belong.
You can’t get much easier than that.
