There was a season when my phone buzzed with inside jokes, when there was always someone to meet for coffee or walk the aisles of Target just to talk about everything and nothing. There were group texts that felt like lifelines, late-night phone calls on the bathroom floor, friends who knew the story behind the story. For years, my life was threaded with friendship like a quilt, messy and mismatched, but sewn with love.

Some of those friendships have faded. Some fractured. Some simply grew distant as our lives expanded in different directions; babies, moves, heartbreaks, and new callings. I grieved the loss of those friendships quietly, like missing a favorite song you forgot to add to your playlist. But even in their absence, they left gifts behind.

These past friendships made my world wider. They taught me how to listen, how to say sorry, how to show up with soup, with silence, and with unbrushed hair. They pulled me into laughter when I forgot how and they stood in the gap when I could not stand on my own. They changed me, shaped me, and softened the hard edges. I can still see us: on porches, in dorm rooms, in booths at Applebees with bottomless french fries. I remember the tearful goodbyes and unexpected reunions, the weddings and baby showers, and the ordinary Tuesdays made holy by good company and a little bit of grace.

These friendships were not perfect, but they were real. And real is sacred. So today, I am remembering. With tears in my eyes and gratitude in my chest. I carry pieces of those friends with me. In how I make soup. In how I write birthday cards. In how I remind someone, “You’re not alone.”

The question I am sitting with today:
What are a few ways friendship has made your life bigger and richer? And now I ask you the same. What friend still lingers in the way you love others? What memory from a past friendship still brings you comfort?

Gracefully yours,

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Reference
Niequist, S. (2024). Celebrate Every Day. Zondervan.