friends

hello there, everyone... and welcome to a pretty lovely thursday, if i do say so myself... i'm sorta ending it by writing this here lil blog of mine :) anyways, just a lil while ago, i was sitting on my beach steps... yes, i know, i said my beach steps... they're really the city's steps... but for all intents and purposes, i'm goin with the fact that i think they're mine. haha! so, i got to watch the moon rise... and damn, damn, damn...what an amazing sight it was! wow! insane really...i was just sitting there, chatting with a friend of mine, not totally paying attention to what was happening right before my very eyes, and there it was...in the palest of blue skies...with lil whisps of clouds, and some very tiny orangey pink streaks... geeeeeeeeeeeesh! just can't get enough of that, i can't lie...it's one of the coolest things to see, and be blown away by just looking up and seeing this thing of beauty, thousands and thousands of miles away from us, and yet still, can take your breath away! god, that makes me happy! so, now, here i am... and i'm thinkin about how these things of beauty just appear.. out of nowhere...then all of a sudden...there you are... speechless...and saying 'woah!'...'check that out!'... that's kinda how life is isn't it? out of nowhere, things happen... people happen... greatness happens... grace happens... destiny. that being said, i have been thinkin back a lot about my childhood... and about friends...from my past...and...from my present. how they're all so different...but in the greatest of ways... ways that change a person...teach a person...make a person grow. the reason i've been thinkin about the importance of friendship is that very recently, one of my best friends moved to california. about 3 weeks ago, i would say...and building up to that moment that she drove away, i knew that my life would be so different without her here... that it would seem less full. you know what i mean? i mean...think about it...think about those friends of yours that change the scope of your day...that are there for everything. these people that talk you out of what you need to be talked out of, whether it be a horrible outfit, a girl/guy that you don't need to call back, that extra drink that you may or may not need, or even talk you into havin fun when that's exactly what you need. the list goes on... but you get what i mean... these people...these friends... they make all the difference in the world... and yeah, even some days, they are just that...your world. i know that for me, i've been really lucky. i've had amazing friends throughout my life. so many great times...so much to look back on and smile. i was telling a kid i work with about the things we used to do when i was growing up, right down the road in hilliard. if you haven't been there, when i lived there, from 3rd grade to 12th grade, we only had one red light in the town. life was different then. we lived on a dirt road on 2 acres of land. our house and barn was on the front acre (which, by the way, was huge, the barn, that is, well, the top portion being a bedroom, which i got to move into when my brothers moved out...sweet, eh?), then we had a back acre that housed a chicken coop with cackling hens and roosters, a stable for our cow, martha, and my lil horse, rusty...and a running track for my dad... we also used that for our motorcycles...yeah...we each had a motorcycle. haha! i can see it now. i had a cool white helmet :) the thing is...in every house on that dirt road, there were two kids, at least... we had the biggest games of football, basketball, flatball and jugball (two games we made up when we didn't have a use-able ball, bike races, and some weird game that we used to play in the neighbor's yard trampoline, like it was a battle ship and our bikes were the planes...hilarious! there were bonfires and cookouts and fellowships after church. we had everything we needed right on that road. when i think of it, i smile, because i remember those friends with fondness. it's one of the reasons i ended up an athlete...besides the fact that i think i came out of my mom's womb, ready to throw, catch, and shoot whatever ball was near me (haha!)...i was surrounded by friends that loved to play and play always... until our parents were calling us inside...and we were mad when they did, begging for more minutes, even though it was so dark and you couldn't see a ball anyways. haha! when i became old enough to ride a 10 speed, i was off to the races, riding over to my friend's house to play tennis for hours on end...or ride to the jiffy to play the pinball machine with the pocket full of quarters i had saved up, just for that purpose. the fun birthday parties that always ended up with 'spin the bottle' or '7 minutes in heaven', or a crazy game of hide and seek at the high school across the street... skate parties in folkston, a town 15 minutes down the road from us. the high school dances, that somewhere in my memory, i can remember my older brother playin in a band, and the big songs were 'free bird' and 'i went back to ohio'...for some reason i can't remember any other song they played. hahahhahaha! oh wow...the times we all had! mcdonalds in callahan, hardees in folkston after youth group. my list goes on an on... and all of that...none of it would have been possible or much fun at all without friends... good ones. and they were great. the greatest. when i tell these stories to this kid, he says to me, 'wow, it sounds like you had a really fun time when you were growing up', because while i'm telling these stories to him, i'm smiling the entire time and laughing at myself, wrapped up in the warmth of the memories of it all. looking back, i can't believe how great i had it. and looking at my life now, i know that i have it great now too. my entire life i've been surrounded by a melting pot of the best people possible. people that push me, that pull me in, that scold me when i need it, and believe me, i need it more often than not, that remind me who i am, and sometimes just give that much needed 6 second hug. these friends are what get me through the moments in my life that i'm unsure where i'm going or what i'm doing, or, lets be honest, they have a few drinks with you just because it's friday night. it's these people that make all the difference. and that have made all the difference. in my life. as you get older, you begin to realize how special a good friendship is... and how difficult it is to find a truly great friend... my friend that just moved away...she had a way of just walkin into the room...and somehow on somedays, that's what would save me...just that she was there. so, with that being said... if you have friends like this, whether it's been awhile or it was just an hour ago that you talked to them...make sure you tell 'em how you feel...how important they are to you...what they've done for you. because in that... you're showing them one of the coolest parts of friendship... your heart. so, don't be afraid to show your heart, because here's the truly genius part of this whole friendship deal... if you show your heart and it gets handed back to you in crumply pieces, that's where the good friend part comes in handy... because there they'll be, to help you stand again, to help you get it back together, to make you laugh when you think absolutely nothin is funny, and to put their hand on your back and force you through that door you thought you'd never walk through. so, yeah...as for me...to all of you people that did all that, and continue to do so...thank you, a million times over, for being that simple, but perfectly outstanding thing we call a 'friend'. i'm honored and lucky to have you throughout all the chapters of my funny little life. without you, i'm not so sure i could call it a life. but a life it surely is...a full one.