Friendship

Everything important I know about friendship I learned from Carole.

I learned that friends are not people you drink with, or people you work with, or people you watch football or go to church with, or people you just somehow accumulate on Facebook or Twitter.   Friends are the people who will step up to the plate in the bad times as well as hang around in the fun times.

Also, I learned that friendship is so much more than a relationship.  It's a journey, an adventure, even a mission.  The weather may be fair or foul, the terrain easy or hard, and we may not always feel up to the task, but always friends are there for each other, helping them through the difficult times as well as rejoicing in the happier times.

And as with any mission, there are duties which cannot be shirked, but are readily accepted - because there's just nothing else you can possibly do - whatever it takes.  So this is a tribute to my friends, but especially to Carole.  And more than a tribute, it's also a promise.