Sustainable Friendship

"Make new friends, but keep the old;

    one is silver and the other gold."

Violet, my granddaughter, broke out into song on the way home from Daisy Girl Scouts tonight.  Soon after, she asked me, "which friend is silver, the new friend or the old friend?  And which one is gold?"

"What do you think, Violet?" I asked her.

"Well, I think new things are nice and shiny like gold, so the new friend is gold."

We went on to talk about the value of friendship and how gold is much more valuable than silver, much like an old friend.  We talked about how "old" and "gold" rhyme...it helps her six-year-old mind remember that factoid!  Violet told me about her "gold" friend, Jesse.  Jesse is "gold" because she is kind, and Violet has known her ever since preschool.  When the other kids won't let her play outside with them, Jessie lets her play.  Gold indeed!

I thought about my golden friendships.  A treasured friend called last night, and we had another of many late-night hours-long calls.  You know the kind of friend that you pick up the phone and the years melt away?  That is Lynn.  We have been friends for nearly 40 years, longer than we have known our husbands.  We married the same year, our husbands became firefighters, had babies a month apart, spent much of their childhoods together.  Our lives are so intertwined that I cannot imagine my life without her.  As we reach middle age, I see her growing into grandmotherhood gracefully and love her more than ever.  Gold, indeed.

Do you have a golden friendship?  Treasure it, nurture it.  My conversation with Violet made me realize how much I treasure my friendship with Lynn.  Thank you, Lynn, for being my treasured friend.  You have made my life richer, and you are worth far more than gold.