Friends Pick You Up When You Are Down

I've always been accident prone. I'm not talking just a little; I am talking dangerously clumsy. Since the time that I was a little kid I've been walking into walls, falling off chairs and occasionally down stairs. Dishes somehow manage to break in my hands, light bulbs pop over my head, pictures fall off walls, and doors seem to magically close on me when I try to get through them.

There may be a reasoning behind my many accidents. For a start, I have tunnel vision so I am walking around like a horse in blinders, and that turns me into one very clumsy human! Courtesy of my narrowed down field of vision, my hips have a tendency to bump into furniture or walls, which in turn have a tendency to throw their contents raining down on me. Out and out right nasty business!

Now to make matters worse, although I look perfectly normal I have a rare illness called myositis that affects my joints and muscles, so I have a tendency to be a wee smidgen wobbly at times. Funny thing about the illness is that I can be fine for weeks and then suddenly have a muscle, knee or ankle decide not to work that day. It is always somewhat of a surprise (even to myself) when I suddenly find myself hitting a little bump in the road and heading face first downwards toward the sidewalk. I am sure passerbys think I must be either drunk or on some mighty fine drugs.

Now over the course of my years here on this pretty little planet that we live on, I have definitely come to the conclusion that true friends are the ones who treat my many little accidents, as though they are just normal behavior. My friends help me back up, dust me off, and then we carry on our way once again as though nothing too much out of the ordinary has occured.

........except for one friend who actually had the brilliance to suggest that I try skiing, ha ha I don't think so, but I sure do appreciate the humor in that thought!

So here I am one weekend, attending my nephews wedding, it is Saturday night and they play the song, "Cotton Eyed Joe". Well I love to dance, and I just had to dance to that song, I love that song! I grab my oldest nephew and away we go, but a few beats into the dance my knees seem to disappear, and down I go.

My nephew looks at me in surprise, my date for the evening looks a whole bunch surprised, and I take a couple minutes to check things out to make sure that I haven't broken anything.

Then I hold out my hands to my nephew, he pulls me to my feet, and we continue dancing.

Yep, you can definitely tell true friends. They pick you up when you are down, dust you off, and act like nothing out of the ordinary has happened.

Sometimes the hurt feels like it is almost beyond healing. But things do get better over time and it is usually through the warmth and caring of our friends, that we learn to live again.

Friends are our greatest resource when we are in times of need. They are there to help us through the loneliness, the insecurity and the anger. We lean on them, and in their strength, we find our own ability to once again stand alone! They are there to teach us to trust again, to care again, and even to believe in love again.

They are our means of surviving the tough times.

Remission! I suddenly felt like superwoman, even steroids had not been able to give me the strength that being "normal" now gave me. The unbearable pain that I had suffered for the previous 6 years was gone, my mind was brilliantly clear and I could think again. I could run again, bend again, I had stamina again and I could play again. Best of all I looked like me again.

I was me again and I was terrified ........Read More

Siblings are our earliest companions, playmates and confidants in life. We laughed with them, cryed with them, were afraid with them, and angry with them. They helped us to learn to share, to feel empathy, and to feel happiness. They were our best friend, and at other times, our worst enemy.

Although at times they annoyed us almost beyond tolerance they were, and also usually still are, the first ones there to comfort or defend us whenever the need arises ......Read More

Flirting just isn't a skill that most of us were born with, or one that we were generally taught as we aged, so learning to flirt can take a little practice to get right. It is also not an exact science, so it may take a little time to learn how to flirt effectively, and to learn to identify the signs when someone is flirting back at you. Like most other things in life we just have to keep trying, practice makes perfect, and with a little trial and error you will get your method of flirting figured out. As you receive a few positive signs back, you will become more confident and comfortable with your technique ........Read More