As seen at the RGBP site, courtesy of Songbird:

"I've been reflecting this week on the gift of friendship, of people who will be there no matter what you need or when you need it. Sometimes a friend accompanies us through a dark place or dances with us through a joyful time or simply walks down the road of an ordinary time beside us."

Name five friends who have been there when you needed them.

1. My Other Equal Half. There is so much I could say about this, but I won't. Take my word for it.

2. This one is kind of painful. I had a very close friend in seminary, who I actually met before we both uprooted our spouses and kids and moved to the campus. We were like salt and pepper the first year or so. I can honestly say that I would not have survived my first year at Semi-Famous Theological Skool if she had not been my "neighbor across the slab".

Sadly, she had some problems that were beyond my scope of coping with. She needed a friend, yes, but she needed more than that--more than I could offer. I ended up leaving the friendship, to save my integrity. I am immensely sad about this, that it didn't work for us to be life-long friends. But I want to honor the closeness that we once had, and the importance she once had in my life, by mentioning this relationship here.

3. I had another circle of friends while at Semi-Famous who got me through it. We were all second-career women with marriages and families that needed to be nurtured while we were there. We shared meals, (cups of coffee, glasses of wine, boxes of kleenex), watched each other's children, studied together, had "girl's night out" together, encouraged our spouses to form community (they didn't; they were working too hard). When one of us had a baby, the others were all stand-by labor coaches. One of my friends flew 2,000 miles to preach at my ordination. I miss them.

4. I am so happy to have my circle of RGBP and others whom I've met online. If you had asked me one year ago if I would have been involved in such a community, I would have laughed. But now, I have at least three new friends with whom I share 1-2 degrees of seperation, and at least one new friend with whom I often feel as if we are "twin daughters of different mothers." Not to mention all the wonderful new friends I hope to meet in person some day, but who in the meantime amuse, amaze and inform me. My cup overflows.

5. This last one has surprised and delighted me. Someone I met while a student, and who later was the head of staff at my internship site, has become a very supportive person in my pastoral formation, even though we correspond almost exclusively by e-mail. He's just been a very supportive presence in my struggle to become what God intends for me. It is one of those friendships within which a high level of trust has grown over time. I've thoroughly enjoyed watching our friendship change over the last year or so. A real blessing...