Struggling to Find the Words

Sisters by choice
Brothers by association
Comfort for life's challenges
Neither duty nor obligation

Kin of our own selection
Rendering gifts of levity
Reviving faith in humankind
Respite from life's brevity

Rich with the bounty of friendship
Enriching my intellect and fortitude
With only these meager words
To express my most sincere gratitude

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Okay, the poem with the big words didn't work...

Family, I understand. Family is a chemical connection. We are required to be there for one another based on the mysterious, random mixing of chromosomes. When we don't stand up for our family, that is the exception, the ghastly wrongdoing. But the devotion of friends is quite different. Friendships are earned and maintained without any genetic obligation.

I am graced with these friendships. The friends from long ago, still friends today, sharing a history and surviving great distances without missing a beat. With these friends I am carefree, surrounded by people who know me better than I know myself. And the grace of newer friendships, and my teaching friends. Sharing a common interest or circumstance, these friends fill me with their insight, their humor, and their wisdom. Friends with whom I can feel good about humankind, restoring my faith in the collected good that can be done by good people.

So without duty or obligation, I am graced with friends who stand by my side. Friends who grace me with the gifts of their presence. Friends who grace me with the gift of thinking of me in my absence. I have done so little to deserve so graced a life. So, to my friends, I offer my gratitude, and my friendship in return.