I’ve never been one to have a lot of friends. Sure, I mostly get along with everyone on a surface level, but deep down, true blue friends are not as common. Maybe this is the case for most people. I honestly have no idea.

Over the years I’ve had my core groups. I’ve had friends on the periphery of those groups who, for a variety of reasons did not make it into the core. This is not to say I purposely excluded them. Quite the contrary, I’m pretty sure a good 65% of them didn’t want to be there.

At one point in my life, very dear friends moved away. Up until that point, my husband and I had spent considerable time with them. Their leaving not only left a gaping hole in my heart, but it left one in my calendar, too. In order to fill this void, we hosted auditions for new couples. We never found anyone with whom we clicked like our departed friends.

It was around this time that I realized that I was probably done with the friend-making stage of my life. The opportunities to make new ones were diminished, casual acquaintances never materialized into anything more. I was really alright with this. I concentrated on the friends I had, cultivating and nurturing those relationships, taking great care to keep them close.

And so it went on like this for some time. Things were just fine. I wasn’t looking for anyone new in my life and no one was beating down my door. I had some offhand conversations with people. Sometimes we chatted a few times, sometimes never again. I was ambivalent, never expecting anything more than that one encounter.

Maybe fine isn’t the best word. Safe is probably a better one. It’s like that Simon & Garfunkel song, “I Am A Rock.” Surely you’ve heard it. The whole song is quotable, but one of my favorite lines is this: “If I never loved, I never would have cried.” People can’t let you down if you don’t let people in. It’s logic I can’t argue with.

Not too long ago, though, I let my guard down. I let some new people in. I thought long and hard about whether or not this was a good idea. I am trusting. I am caring. I am sensitive. This could all go very wrong. I could get very hurt.

I have to say though, I believe I am all the better for it. I don’t know that I was foolish to remain behind my walls for so long. Perhaps those people who floated in and out of my life were ones who weren’t going to stay no matter what I did.

Maybe somehow, this time, I just knew. Guts, instinct, that sort of thing. Sometimes people come into our lives just at the moment we need them. I think that’s the case here. I’m feeling very lucky these days. Very lucky, indeed.

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Don’t forget the weekend moonshine grid will open today at 6 p.m. for whatever you would like to share. We will also be giving away our Week 3 perk packages to five NaBlo bloggers who’ve not missed a day from Nov. 15 to Nov. 21. Stop by!
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