I got a text really early yesterday morning from a dear friend of mine in LA, she said ‘Today you need to go rent a funny movie or hang out with funny people’. It was a little prophetic statement of a day that had been planned weeks before. Yesterday the warmth of forever friendship and a day trip to a little piece of yesteryear was the water my soul desperately craved.
Sometimes all we need is a little warmth.
Sometimes we just need to hang around with some friends that we don’t have to look after or please.
I laugh when I read people’s facebook status’ over sharing sometimes and I quietly whisper to myself, seriously phone a friend.
Whether you are a married or single, there are days that the effort required to plan a day away with your friends is worth every moment of its planning.
To leave town, turn up your favourite music, to drive through any countryside, to laugh, sing, to have coffee and look at buildings you would never notice on your own or to just wander.
Yesterday that is what we did. We wandered, talked, breathed a little slower, took time to just unpack the tangles of our hearts and believe in the potential of a new day together.
That is what our network Kinwomen is all about.
Women supporting women, friends helping each other.
I didn’t speak at all yesterday about the heart breaking places in my life at the moment, I didn’t have to, my friends didn’t pry or prod. I hardly talked about the book I released this week and how exciting this new chapter is my new season of motherhood.
We just laughed, listened and just took time to just be.
Who can you just be with?
You know a friend that you are able to wander down the beach with, that person who doesn’t make the conversation completely about their confused patches, but asks about yours also?
That friend who is totally fine with silence, but has the capacity to say the hard things also.
Are you the type of friend that you would want to hang with?
I bought the drawing above in Thailand when I was there recently with one of these kind of friends. She offered to buy them for me when they caught my eye. That day I bought a set of three, two of them are now in New Zealand with my closest girlfriends sitting in their special places encouraging them.
My little drawing sits above my computer and every time I see it, it reminds me to pray for one of my lifelong friends.
Little momento’s of memories and opportunities captured.
There is a warmth in friendship.
There is a moment to be captured that will never exist again.
The photo of the window below was taken in a house that we had a cup of tea with the most amazing couple yesterday. They bought the Old York Hospital ten years ago and have spend the last decade renovating it to its former glory. They invited us to just come and explore their heritage.
This window is an antique in their staircase. A hand designed window that was made in the late 1800’s.
The lovely owner of the house it presides in now, was overwhelmed that they were able to look out at this window often and he said ‘the only reason we still have this is because it is too high in the house to be stolen’
This piece of history that we wandered through was a moment that will never be experienced again. It was a special place of privilege that we were invited to enjoy. At some moments in the last week, I seriously considered cancelling my attendance because it had just been such a huge week. The memory of this tour would never have happened if we didn’t just take the time to explore.
Take time to bask in the warmth of lifelong friends sometime soon and if you don’t have anyone that you feel this comfortable with, then take time to be the kind of friend that you desire.
Till we meet again.
Amanda
