Blessed.

I am blessed in countless ways. In fact, sometimes it feels a bit glutinous. One of those ways includes the amazing group of women that share my life.

I really don't like this cliche, but I think it accurately describes what I feel: We are a group in individuals woven together into a beautiful fabric. Gag, I know. But you see where I'm going with this.

Some of us meet regularly for lunch, more to give each other sometimes brutal reality checks than anything else. You don't get that from anyone other than very close friends. This group has snapped me back into reality on more than one occasion.

Some of us meet for happy hour to celebrate, commiserate, or solve life's greatest challenges. It's amazing what can happen over a glass of wine.

Some of us "therapy run" as the sun is rising and return feeling infinitely better and more grounded than when we laced up our shoes.

Some of us only connect periodically by text or Facebook in the perfect vacuum of time  that stands still. 

Several years ago I developed a very bizarre and skewed theory that people, women especially, didn't need friends to survive. It came from a "survival of the fittest/forge your own trail" mentality. I was an idiot. And I was wrong. And this amazing group of women have proven me wrong dozens of times. There have been periods in my life I may not have survived were it not for my friends. And for that I am grateful.

We have shared divorce, child birth, poor hair choices, career changes, financial struggles, the death of parents, marriage, and everything in between. Their issues are my issues. And my issues become their issues. I have stood on their shoulders more than once.

In fact, before I married my husband, I told him VERY SERIOUSLY that if he wanted to marry me, he had to also consider himself married to my friends. Because they weren't going anywhere. He gets it. And that just happens to be yet another blessing.

If you're lucky enough to have people in your life that will allow you to stand on their shoulders when your water is rising too quickly, and will stand on your shoulders in turn, you too are blessed.