I was blessed today.

I have been blessed throughout my entire life with fantastic friends. They have come and gone (some for longer periods than others) but they have all been wonderful! The one's I have now are the best! I guess I've gotten better at picking them as I've gotten older. :)

What makes my friends so great now you ask? We are willing to fight for our friendship! Today was a great example. About a week ago a friend of mine did something (without realizing it) that was irritating to me. During a conversation yesterday it came up and I became upset. In fact angry, and I could feel it growing. I'm a passionate person. Things like this happen often. I can go from 0 to 60 faster than I'd like to admit. I hung up the phone and I could feel myself accelerating. It was happening right before my very eyes. The difference this time? I saw it...and I stopped it!

How you ask, well through e-mail (gotta love technology.) I decided if I didn't want this to escalate into something much bigger (which I also have a tendency to do) I need to shut it down. I e-mailed my friend, told him I was angry but followed it with why I was telling him this. See, I believe that there is a force out there bigger than myself that hates me and wants to separate me from the people who love me and have and will continue to help me grow into the person I'm meant to be. This force was fueling my anger and it needed to stop. That e-mail, slowed it, but it was my friends response that brought it to a grinding halt. He started out his response apologizing even though he didn't know what for, expressed his feeling of frustration in wishing I had shared why I was mad so he could address it within himself, but then followed with this sentence...

"I know this is how you work, so I'm not in any way offended or anxious about this."

This sentence blessed me more than you will ever know. This is a true friend. Someone who knows me, someone who understands that sometimes I need to do things differently than most, someone who cares enough to let me know how they feel. Today we spoke, his response was amazing. Without me having to tell him, he had already figured out why I was upset. He apologized using words like "I took away your power" and "I put you in an awkward position." It was amazing. Instead of an argument with people being hurt and working things out later, it was simple. I'm upset, you realize I'm upset, we talk through it and everything is better in the end.

This is how friendship should be; working together to do life, to grow and to bless one another.

I was blessed today.

(I hope next week when I inadvertently do something that pisses him off he'll respond in a similar fashion. :)