Choose the Right Friends

I don’t do homework.

I’m too old for homework.

I’m too old for friendships that feel like homework.

Friendship, by its very nature, should be joyful and fun and energizing and a blessing to the spirit. My best friends are spontaneous. If plans change, no one takes it personally. We shrug, reschedule and we both leave intact. 

If you feel like your spirit is being choked off by "friends" in your life, maybe it’s time for some new friends.

 I just heard a great line from a friend who was talking about a woman who kept making bad choices that ended up hurting the woman. My friend said, She wasn’t a victim. She was a volunteer. 

That used to be me.

Not any more. If something is too complicated or uncomfortable or requires too much struggling over and over, count me out. I’m going with the flow of life. And when you’re flowing downstream, the River does all the work. Sometimes it moves fast, sometimes, slow, but the energy of the River carries me. 

This past weekend, I had a ball with four friends. Why? Katie, Vicki, Chris and Suellen were flexible. They were fun. They were easy, breezy, Japanese-ee, as my daughter would say.

It started with Suellen. I wanted to go to Akron for a big event and she wanted to go with me. But I would be leaving from archery, way across the west side of Cleveland. She lives on the east side. The choice was go to archery and to Akron alone, or to skip archery and drive with Suellen to Akron. 

Then I stopped to consult my soul: What do you want to do, Regina?

The answer was clear: Both. 

So I gave Suellen the choice: She could go with me to archery and we could drive down to Akron together or I would go to archery alone and meet her in Akron.

She came to archery and had a ball.

We went to Akron and had a ball.

Life is a ball when you choose the right friends.