I had a fun time in Kansas City last night with
And all of this is what makes my friendship with Amy so remarkable to me. She is arguably one of my oldest and dearest friends and our friendship grew in spite of the distance between us. Only in the past few months since I have begun training have I been afforded the opportunity to have frequent visits to her home town. And it is also this relationship with Amy that has made me become a better friend, not only to her, but to everyone in my life. I don't have many "close" friends, just because that's the way I'm wired. But the ones I do have, I have begun making that effort to maintain those connections... my pal Robin, an ex-girlfriend who I count as my best friend; Kevin, who I have known in professional and personal capacities off and on for the past 13 years, we have managed to keep in touch since our last round of mutual places of employment. And I've also begun rekindling old friendships, like recently with

I guess I always thought that if the other person didn't share in the responsibility of maintaining the friendship when it became more difficult to sustain that it was some sort of signal that it was time to exit that relationship. No hard feelings or anything, just time to let it slip away and move on. But what I've learned is that while it is a two-way street, sometimes one person has to do the bulk of the work for a while because the other person may not be able to for periods of time and sometimes those roles may reverse. Friendships are organic in that they go to whatever level they go to naturally, but like anything organic, they take some attention and care to remain viable. I hadn't really planned on this entry becoming what it has, but I guess I'm just thankful for the many friendships I have and I cherish each and every one of them. Regardless of depths and strengths of the them individually, as a whole it is the thing I prize most in life and something for which I am extremely thankful and grateful.