I do get by with a little help from my friends. My whole life has been about being a friend or needing a friend or wanting a friend or counting my friends. You know, we are not so good alone. There is so much to living in this world and functioning here while trying to maintain some degree of mental health and even just surviving day to day life, that a friend can be a necessity. Some friends are related and some are people we have met somewhere by accident or incident along the way from birth to today. I have very few close friends, but I have a lot of friends. The kind I count on for "outside my life" contact are everywhere! The local store owners and employees who help me obtain whatever material things or services that I need to be comfortable or safe or well fed. The people who come when I call for service on something around our home. They could come and take advantage of us or they might actually become friends. Many have become friends over the years.
Friends come in all sizes shapes and descriptions. What a blessing that is. I don't have to be the woman who has 2 friends and they all 3 look and act exactly alike. I like when people think like me, because that's comfortable and we seldom disagree. That's very nice. I also like friends who seldom agree, that's how I learn new ideas. It makes me think my own perceptions through and maybe tweak them and maybe not. They challenge me and that's a good thing.
When I am deep into my Sun Deprivation Depression it is my friends who help me out of it, temporarily. I will slide back as soon as I go home to go to bed or they go home to go to their bed. I can't stay out of the dark when it hits me and envelopes me, but I will jump out momentarily when my sister calls me to chat about stuff. I will see the light for the time I am spending with Momma. I'll be happy for a little bit while I have a nice dinner with my best bud. While I am being hugged by my roomy I won't be thinking how miserable I am. It's my friends who keep me out of the black for little windows of sunless sunshine daily. I do get through my SDD with a little help from my friends. I get a big hand up when roomy and I go seek the sun in March! If we can't go, it's a little harder on him and well, everyone around me. (sorry, guys)
And my online friends are always there. Where else can you pour your heart out to someone you may never have seen or heard and get (((hugs))) and <3 and maybe even some wisdom to help you through a difficult time. Oh, for certain, my online friends add a huge and important dimension to my life. Again, I hope in some small way, I add something to theirs.
Oh yeah, I need my friends! I hope they need ME, too.
Jo
Yes, we need you, Sweet Jo.
ReplyDeleteIf not for my on-line friends, I would not have any friends because I am completely entrenched in family and home. I have been blessed to meet a lot of really great people on the internet. Some will, no doubt, be life long friends.
You need a winter home in Florida. Leaving the north did wonders for my cousin's SDD!
Darlene...I am so glad to hear that! :)
ReplyDeleteI know, the thing about the online friends is their availability! I love that. I will tell you one day, in a blog, no doubt, about how I am going to write my own online obit so that when I am no longer able to post because I have passed on, someone will just have to clickity click and you will all know that I have left the www.
I do need a winter home in the sun...but that will have to wait. Momma needs me here and I need to be with my Momma while I can be. She won't go and I don't want to leave her.
Thanks for sharing with me.
I once worked with a guy that had SDD and we worked the graveyard shift too! It was so hard on him, and winter's were even worse. He didn't work with us very long.
ReplyDeleteI love your post. <3
Jo this was a great post!! I think we all need our friends to be there for us--how uplifting is it to have them in our lives--all of them?? Even when we don't see eye to eye with them or they get us thinking!! Yes--friends are immeasurable!! You are a good friend to have! Cheers, Jenn.
ReplyDeleteAngie...Loving sunshine is one thing, needing it is really a different thing all together. Most people know about SDD, but very few who don't have it can actually imagine it. When I say that I am solar powered, I truly mean it. :)
ReplyDeleteJenn...thanks for stopping and commenting and also for thinking I am a good friend. I try, but I don't know how really successful I am! I still have that loner gene roaming inside me and sometimes, I just let it take over! :)
ReplyDeleteGreetings, Jo, new Tribemate! I think it's wise that we learn to spread the love - not every friend I have wants to dish about dating, or crafting, or writing - and that's okay. I think it makes our lives richer, to have a multitude of friends.
ReplyDeleteFrankly, much as I enjoy reading certain blogs, I'm just as happy the authors are not living right next door to me!
Hi. Beverly...so nice to meet you.
ReplyDeleteI agree about not really caring if my real life friends talk with me about writing and such. But I'd love to have some of my blogger friends closer by!
Thx so much for letting me know you were here.
What a wonderful post. I actually yelled (yes yelled, and if you knew me, you'd know this is way out of character) to a friend tonight. Friendship, like every thing, takes two. Me, too, new to the tribe, which makes me laugh since all my life I am have wondered when my Apache/Ute heritage would pay off. Hope to read more of your posts.
ReplyDeleteBrenda...Happy to meet you! That Indian heritage will be helpful to you learning all about the tribal ways. lol Thanks for stopping by and I'll be looking for your posts as well! :)
ReplyDeleteJo,
ReplyDeleteI also feel blessed to know in the dead of winter my besties will lift me up. I love my online friends and it is so nice getting to know you online. Lets keep building all our buddies up on line. Women rock and women nuture.....
Laura...I so agree with you! Getting involved with these online bloggers has really given me a huge lift! Thank you for all your good vibes and always stopping by to share. That makes me smile!
ReplyDelete