...Some are silver and the others gold...

How many friends do you have?

According to Facebook, I have 14. Fourteen friends. I can't quite believe it.

Okay -- one of them is our local airport. Then there are a few clients, and my beloved hubby. Still -- several folks I know on Facebook have hundreds. HUNDREDS of friends! And it must be true -- after all, there it is in on the computer screen.

I've never made friends easily -- and it hasn't gotten easier as I've gotten older. I am certainly friendly, (some would say entertaining). I have dozens of folks with whom I enjoy spending time, and co-workers I like very much. But very few actual friends.

In fact, if I am perfectly honest, I think I have four. Four friends.

And at first glance, some might think -- "how sad...she only has four friends..."

But I look at it quite differently -- I have FOUR FRIENDS!

I have four people who I know I can call anytime, day or night, and if it is within their capacity to help me they will -- regardless of time or distance. They know the same of me. People for whom I care deeply -- dare I say love -- and who I know feel the same way about me. To me, friends are family -- the family you get to choose -- and who choose you in return.

"A friend is someone who is there for you when he'd rather be anywhere else." -- Unknown

These are people who I want to talk to during both the best and worst moments -- mine and theirs. They are familiar with my faults and talents and willing to share both. The people to whom I can say: "I did the dumbest thing today..." and they will listen...and laugh with me at my idiocy.

Each adds something immeasurable to the quality of my life. I pray that I offer the same. They listen to what I say, and what I do not say.

"No lapse of time or distance of place can lessen the friendship of thosewho are truly persuaded of each other's worth." - Unknown

One friend I communicate with almost daily. One I speak to only once or twice a year. One is a beloved mentor...another a travel buddy and musical savant. Each precious. Each as necessary to me as oxygen.

And while I enjoy playing on Facebook, I am somewhat bewildered when I receive "friend invitations" from folks who simply seem to be "collecting friends." Truth is, I decline almost all "friend invitations" I receive. Not because I don't care about the person in question (if, in fact, I remember them at all), but because friendship means something profound to me. I invest in my friendships.

"How lucky I am to have known someone who was so hard to say goodbye to."

I lost a friend recently. Not to illness or death, or even physical distance. No, the tragedy is that I lost this friend to a point of view expressed in this blog. I feel today like I've lost a limb -- and not a pinky finger, but one of the important ones! -- because he fears my new-found faith. I mourn the closeness we've lost because he fears a judgment on his lifestyle that simply isn't there. I oscillate between anger and sadness, but am ultimately hopeful that we will somehow be able to recapture what we've had.

"It is as if their is a cord, knotted beneath my rib - connected to you in similar fashion, and I fear that cord will snap and I will take to bleeding inwardly." -- Jane Eyre

When, months ago, I re-connected with a friend after a long absence, this quote from my favorite book jumped into my mind. What a gift such a connection is! I do not take it for granted, but thank God daily for being the recipient of such a blessing.

But perhaps Edgar Guest sums up my feelings best:

"I'd like to be the sort of friend that you have been to me. I'd like to be the help that you've been always glad to be; I'd like to mean as much to you each minute of the day, as you have meant, friend of mine, to me along the way."