Thankful.

I woke up this morning very late. It was almost the afternoon. Sleeeep. Mmmmm. I went to a Brooke Fraser concert last night! It was awesome. Sold out, so it was packed, but so worth it. She is so random and funny and her music is beautiful. Really, really beautiful. She is just awesome.

But more importantly, I got to spend time with two lovely girls, very dear to my heart. We've known each other forever. I am so thankful for them both.

Alison and I have known each other since elementary school. We played basketball together, and we became best friends forever when my dad moved onto the same street her family lived on. Every other weekend, and Wednesday nights we would get to hang out. Well, more like I always wanted to hang out, but she was a much better student than I was and often turned me down for things like homework and reading (she also ended up at UNC, out of state; smarty pants). But when I could convince her to play we had many adventures in "the meadow," made lotion in the creek, created super cool betty spaghetti hair styles, practiced our dribbling drills, found the best sledding hills, and so many other heart warming memories.

Lindsay and I have known each other since the 7th grade, when her family moved to PA from LONDON (she's so legit, accent and all). We bonded over our common love of field hockey (ha), so naturally our friendship was bound to succeed. Linds (as she likes to be called), saw me through my depressing first year [or so] in NC, when my family moved to Greensboro after our freshman year of high school. She was and continues to be such a huge encouragement to me. I was a mess. I know I was. I had it in my head that I was going to hate everything about Greensboro, and so I did. But she didn't just tell me I was being stupid. Lindsay listened to all my complaints, she cried with me, prayed with me, even made me laugh a few times. We both came a long way in our talking on the phone skillz that year.

I hadn't forgotten how much I loved these two girls. Well, maybe I had. I don't know. But when I woke up this morning, and thought about all of the fun we had last night I couldn't help but make this observation: my favorite part of last night wasn't the concert (the thing that brought us all together in the first place). My favorite part, by far, was the thirty or so minutes we spent sitting in Alison's apartment after the show. We went back to pee before all heading our separate ways, but ended up just chatting for a little while. My favorite part of last night was sitting in Alison's cute little living room and playing with Lindsay's hair. My favorite part of last night was hearing about how Alison's family is doing. My favorite part of last night was reminiscing about the old days. My favorite part of last night was getting to laugh with these girls that I love so much. How I miss them.

Today, I am thankful. I think I often forget how truly and ridiculously lucky I am. I like to dwell on the bad things, as if they were anything for me to complain about. I am blessed beyond belief to have Alison and Lindsay and all of the other outstanding friends Jesus has given me. I owe them so much. They are the best kind of friends I could ask for. They rejoice in my triumphs, mourn my losses, and always, always pick me up and point me in the right direction when I fall. Today, I am more thankful than I can express for Alison and for Lindsay and for all of you beautiful humans I get to be friends with. Thank you for loving me so well. You rock. So, so thankful for you all.

"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." John 15:12