Would my ONE FRIEND friend please step forward!

I have often been heard to say over the years that I really didn't have many friends. Just a few months ago, while watching my sweet son struggle with the problems of childhood, it came to me. You don't need many friends. You really just need a "One Friend." A true, honest and sincere friend. The kind of friend that you would lay down your life for. A person that is always there through challenges and growth, through pain and joy, through failure and accomplishment. The kind that you pine for when life takes you down seperate paths. The kind of person whose life you can change and who can help you become more than you ever hoped to be. Put this way, friendship looked like a much different adventure. I realized that I had been blessed with an abundance of "One friends." And so have you. I would bet my life on it.

As life has gone by, I have known many, many people who I cared for. A few have met my criteria for One Friends. The first was Megan when I was 10. We met just after my family arrived in Schweinfurt, Germany on a three year tour of duty. An unlikely friendship to say the least, she was my closest friend for more than five years. We were both restationed to different areas of the United States in 1989. After a few years we lost contact. I have never been able to locate her again. It is a regret that I carry with me where ever I go, and that I have vowed to never relive.

Next were Gen and Melissa in high school. Vicky just as I was growing up. Heather in San Diego. She saved me from utter despair more than once. Brigitte in Kansas City, who saw me through eyes that no one else could. All of these women were known and loved in my past. Each of them holds a firm place in my heart today.

I have had the pleasure in my new home of meeting yet another One Friend. I'm amazed at how quickly I have come to love her. I probably don't even know her that well , but I feel as though I always have. She is the one that has led me back to my dream and encouraged me to jump in. She has liked me just because. She has helped dig the skeletons out of my closet and allowed me to move on. She has loved me and mourned with me through the hardest times of my life. She has become a permanent fixture in my heart. She is a blond, a brunette, and a silver haired beauty . She has blue eyes, or green, or brown. She is tall. She is short. She is boisterous and quiet. She is silly and serious. She is fun and games. She puts her nose to the grind stone. She laughs and cries. She serves, in her own unique way. She is beautiful. She has touched my life, and I love her for it.

"And it came to pass...that the soul

of Jonathan was knit (tied) with

the soul of David, and Jonathan

loved him as his own soul."

1 Samuel 18:1