We traveled back to our homeland for a two week friend extravaganza.  Ignoring well-meaning advice, I literally tried to connect with every real true and deep friend I have in Denver.  Go ahead, roll your eyes.  You’re thinking how many good friends can a girl have, really.  Come on.  Stop it. I’m telling you, people, I have no watered down, weak Folger’s coffee friends.  My friendships have deep, dark, strong, true elements.  They are concentrated.  My girlfriends have seen me through moves, births, deaths, depression, marriage trouble, stress, failure, and success.  We’ve walked through questions about faith, life, and how it all feels.  We’ve cried, lost sleep, danced, laughed, and sang together.  The problem is, I don’t have a few friends like this.  I have many.  I could write a blog post on each of them.  Telling you how they inspire me, encourage me, love me, and confide in me.  I could tell you about their life’s hardest moments so far, and the ones that made them blush.  I could literally tell you so many things.  So many things.

Casual friends, I have none.  It’s not like it was a big shocker.

I want shallow relationships with skin-deep conversations, said no-one ever.

I have a hard time not jumping right in with people.  I bond with waitresses….I’ve been seen putting oils on my waitress.  I digress.  And no, I’m not going to explain that last comment.  Let your imaginations run wild.  Everyone needs a little oil love, that’s all.

I wrote this post about 9 months ago-after visiting Colorado for the first time after moving.  It was a completely overwhelming trip.  So good, but so hard.  In some senses I felt like I was just going to drive right up to my old street, open the garage door, and come back home.  So….in other words…too soon?  Maybe.  I was truly amazed at how deep my friendships run.  I was fully engaged and soaked up during my conversations.  There was also this hidden sadness too….it’s like you want to be happy for people when they choose to make a change like we did…but you also just sometimes want things to stay the same.  And I felt all that.  Just writing about it right now is making my eyes water.

Well.  Thats all I have to say about this. I am deeply blessed. Though I didn’t think it possible when I first arrived, roots of friendship are growing here in this land of hills.