by Rhonda Erickson

Created on: December 21, 2008

"My Girl Friends"

Opening your heart up to a friendship is also opening it up to the possibility of getting hurt. Friendship, like most other relationships are conditional. You may say you love someone unconditionally, but in reality there are always conditions to this unconditional love. The form of love closest to being real unconditional love, is the love a mother has for her child. Children do not give back this type of love, nor will you find it in a romantic relationship or a friendship. You can love someone honestly and truly, but the conditions will still be there.The basis of friendship is accepting people for who and what they are, respecting their boundaries, realizing.... not judging, their potential vulnerabilities as humans, and knowing you have this in return from them. The people we call our closest or best friends are the ones carried over from childhood or arise from a casual friendship. Usually just one or two, or a small group of folks that we have known for awhile, spend time with socially, talk with openly about our personal lives, can trust with our most inner feelings, and can depend on for support. We think about them often, have a high degree of commitment, and have formed intimate and emotional bonds with them.

I have four women that I consider my closest friends, our relationships have formed over a span of about twenty years. We have worked together, lived together on occasions, helped each other raise a total of eleven children, bury two of those children, and welcome nine grand children. We have laughed and partied together, cried on each other's shoulders, and have yelled, screamed and disagreed with each other on occasions. We have helped each other with job and financial related difficulties. Rallied beside each other come what may through marriage/relationship beginnings, endings, and all in between. We have supported each other during times of crisis with teen age children, sickness or death of parents and other loved ones, and just with life in general at various times when a trusting ear and loving heart was needed.

In the order I met them:

1.) A woman I love with all my heart. She is bold, courageous, and out spoken. She is also good, kind, hard working and ferociously loyal. She raised three children, basically on her own, without much support physically or financially from their fathers.

We were some die hard party girls back in the day. Working full time jobs and pulling mega over time shifts, out drinking most every night,

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