The Sparkly Countenance of a Girlfriend

Today I enjoyed a little email gab-fest with some long-time college friends. Michele started the string with “I am sad :-( “ in the subject line. Normally we keep in touch at least weekly, but this summer it has been sporadic at best and we've missed each other. We are like the Olympic rings; five interconnected, neverending circles. Alone quite complete, but together we are something special, beautiful and tres fabulous. When we’re together I feel like hyper-Joan; me, only more so, if that makes sense. Any good traits in me are magnified in their reflection. In my opinion Annie Gottlieb had it right when she said “We challenge one another to be funnier and smarter…It’s the way friends make love to one another.” It’s true these friends challenge me to use my brain in a different manner than in my day to day life. As one of my sociology professors would say, they encourage me to take a lateral arabesque. Now, I don’t know that the phrase literally translates very well, but she meant to look at things differently.

After the first round of emails I learned that this has been one heck of a busy summer for all of us. Some good, some not so good, but unfortunately that is the way of life on this earth. Once we caught up it didn’t take us long to get back in the groove. Oh how I’ve missed their droll repartee. Pretty soon the upper atmosphere was swarming with witty one-liners flying through the airwaves to land on our computer monitors from miles away.

I am so fortunate to have these smart and funny girlfriends. But I am also very fortunate to have other friends far in distance, but close to my heart, and a gaggle of girlfriends here in my hometown who are all smart and funny. They are all special to me, supportive, loving, able to sustain me in times of trouble, and at the same time they know they can lean on me in their own distress. As iron sharpens iron so we friends hone each other to be our best. Like facets cut in a gemstone, we cut and polish each other so we will shine and sparkle with the brilliance that God intended.

Proverbs 27:17 (NKJV) As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.