Four Loving Friendships That Light Up My Life

I am a lucky woman!

“Real friendship is when your friend comes over to your house and then you both just take a nap.” — Anonymous

In response to Trista Signe Ainsworth’s prompt to write about loving friendships, I would like to mention four beautiful souls who occupy special places in my heart.

One of my dearest friends in the world is Sandy Peckinpah. She began urging me to get on Medium in 2016 and I’m regretting not listening until five years later… Finally, I signed up last year, and rather than elaborate about this incredible woman and our friendship here, I’ll share a link to a story I wrote about her recently:

Another lovely friend is Dr Andrea Polzer, whom I met here in my first few days on Medium. Just 12 days after I joined this platform, we had our first Zoom chat on a Thursday (for me in the UK, Friday for her in NZ) — and have continued weekly ever since.

Andrea is as humble as she is intelligent, as funny as she is wise, and as warm as she is kind. I enjoy our engaging conversations about plans and goals, about dreams and wishes, about challenges and places we get stuck.

With mutual encouragement and respect as a backdrop for our visits, it’s easy to look forward to Thursday evenings.

pockett dessert is another very special friend — more like a sister. Out of respect for her desire for anonymity, I will simply say that I value our exchanges, the love and support she shares so freely with me (and with Witchy, too!), and her beautiful spirit — which is so easily seen and felt in her stunning photos and inspiring words.

And there is my dear friend, Sharon Sayler, Author. I’ve known Sharon for several years and have always looked up to her. She’s one of the smartest people I know and is an exceptional business woman and role model. I’ve learned a lot from watching her and have enjoyed our journey from being colleagues to becoming very close friends.

We speak frequently, which is such fun. She shares her compassion, an ear, a shoulder, her brilliant brainstorming, valued opinions, encouragement, honesty, cheerleading, and her generous heart. We share laughter, and occasionally some tears. We share “girl talk,” “boy talk,” and so much more.

All of these lovely souls mean so much to me. Each friendship is a blessing and is special in its own way. I’m deeply grateful to these women for their generous sharing of themselves and for the strong bonds of love we’ve created.

Thank you, my dear friends, for your beautiful gifts of ongoing love and support, and for believing in me. I love you and hope you know how special you are to me.

An extra special “Thank You Note” to Trista Signe Ainsworth…you are a truly loving, warm, and genuine soul whom I respect and appreciate deeply. Thank you — and your lovely team — for publishing this.

One of the reasons I appreciate these four friendships is that all of them are safe and supportive places for us to share challenges and emotions openly. We know life isn’t always rosy and sometimes we need to share that stuff, too.

I am reminded of Patricia Wright’s brilliant piece about the importance of healing emotional trauma.