Friends

From time to time you come across people who change your life, who do you a great service or who just make you smile for a day…and then there are the people you come across who you know you were meant to meet.

My friend Andrea is one of the latter – we have so much in common it spooks all of our friends to the point where they call us The Twins.  Even though we live miles away from each other and don’t get to see each other from one end of the year to the next, we talk most days – usually via email or private message.  We’re roughly the same age, we have two children – a girl then a boy – with the same age gap between them, our second husbands are both 16 years younger than us and share the same first name, we have similar tastes in music, books and film, although we disagree on one thing …. I love True Blood, she prefers Twilight, but hey, I can forgive her that!  If one of us is ill you can guarantee the other will be too.  I can talk to her about everything and anything and know that I won’t be misunderstood and that feelings won’t be hurt on either side and I can count on her no matter what…this is a true friend.

My friend Carol, I met through the craft circuit.  She is truly an amazingly talented woman who has successfully attempted many different crafts – I can’t keep up with her.  She started photography a while back and her images are just amazing.  She also introduced me to Encaustic Art – something I had never heard of before.  The paintings she has come up with are beautiful.  Have a look at her site and see if you don’t agree with me.  www.hotwaxart.co.uk.

She also is the most patient person I have met.  She has painstakingly dragged me (kicking and screaming at times) through building my website and never turns me away when I do something stupid to the site and need her help to repair the blunder…although I’m sure she sits at her screen rolling her eyes and shaking her head at my idiocy at times.

Two years ago I met a wonderful couple – Derek and Valerie.  Valerie and I clicked right away and the more I get to know her, the more I realise we have in common.  She is truly one of life’s wonderful people, thoughtful, kind, considerate and tolerant of people (unless of course they are fools…but who tolerates fools?)  A while ago I admired a bracelet she was wearing…I had never seen one like it before.  Not being a very girly type, I don’t tend to notice things like that unless they are unusual.  Valerie makes the most wonderful jewellery and wedding favours and fripperies – check out her site www.scotsglassgems.co.uk.

Today, she and I were at the Balerno Craft Fair and I was having a really bad morning – Murphy’s Law had struck firmly on my head.  I was running late, had forgotten my cash float, I had left my card stand and banner at home and to top things off, as I was getting my cart to the hall it stuck and pulled out of my hand taking my fingernail with it.  I really just wanted to turn around and go back home to bed.

Out of the blue Valerie asked me what my star and Chinese zodiac signs were.  Without thinking too much about it I replied Aries and Dragon.  Two minutes later she handed me a little silver bag and inside was a similar bracelet to the one I had admired on her all those months before.  I was completely taken aback – what a wonderful surprise and such a lovely gift, given without reason except she could.

I think sometimes we get caught up in the idea of buying the perfect present for Christmas, birthdays etc that we forget that sometimes the best gifts are given for no reason except we can.

I also think we sometimes forget how lucky we are when special people come into our lives.  We take it for granted that our friends will always be there.  I have learned over the years that friends sometimes need to hear that they are special to us and to be thanked for being friends, that they are appreciated and that we are lucky to have them in our lives.