These Are My PEOPLE

I have a friend I met through my son’s soccer. At least once a week we swap kids for rides to and from practice, and I’m always happy to see her. We have tons of fun talking and spending time together on the weekends cheering at our kids’ games.

But I don’t call her with my broken heart.

I have a friend I meet sometimes for walks in the mornings so we can gab about kids and activities and school and life and the upcoming holidays. She brings so much joy to my days, and I’m always grateful to see her smiling face when I round the street corner on the way to pick up my kids from school.

But I’ve never shared the secret longings of my soul with her while fighting back tears.

I have a friend from church I haven’t seen in over six months because of kids and work and life and ALL the things, but I know if I needed something, I could say the word and she’d drop everything to come and help.

It’s funny.

We need ALL kinds of friends, don’t we?

Easy friends. Neighborhood friends. College friends who’ve known us since before we ‘settled down’. Soccer-mom friends. Loyal friends. Those friends who show up in your phone as ‘Sherri-Matthew’s Mom.’

Each of the women in these friend categories is absolutely precious in my life.

But only a few…

(a very small few)

Are my PEOPLE.

These are the women who’ve sat beside me while I cried over my broken marriage. The ones who’ve listened intently about a deep childhood hurt. Or a recent fight at home. Or a difficult relationship with a family member I just can’t seem to fix.

The ones who know everything about me. And love me anyway.

The ones who make me feel the most at home even when we’re 1,000 miles apart. And reassure me with a look or just the right GIF or a phone call or a face across the table that doesn’t scrunch up and call me crazy (even when I’m acting a little, um, unreasonable).

My PEOPLE promise with their constant presence and unconditional love (even from a distance) that I don’t ever have to pretend.

Life only gives us a few.

But when we find them???

We just know...

These are my PEOPLE.