Girl Friends

In the past two weeks I have been showered with love by my girl friends.  Not that I didn't know this already, but I have some pretty amazing friends.

I've had dinner brought to me.  I've had dinners out planned for me.  I've had wine nights brought in for me.  I've had countless offers of childcare.  And that's only the local ladies.  For the next three weekends, three of my best friends are descending upon DC to hang with me.

I'm very lucky.  Particularly because as I've gotten older, I've noticed that it's easier and easier to let friendships fall to the wayside.

It's nobody's fault, really.  Life just gets in the way.  People live in different cities.  People have husbands.  People have kids.  Weekends are designated family time.  And before you know it, weeks have gone by without a phone call, and facebook becomes your major mode of communication.

Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of friends in DC, and as I've written about on here, I'm always trying to keep an active social life.  But it's a social life based on playdates and parks and early bird specials.  Time spent together is heavy on the kids and light on the moms.

With career and family and kids and all the stresses of every day life, I suppose it's only natural. But it's not a good thing.  It's sad that it has taken this rough patch in my life to drive this point home to me, but I'm grateful for the wake up call.

Women need other women.  Simple as that.  Sure, we're catty and bitchy and jealous creatures, but at the end of the day, we understand each other.   Only we understand what it's like to carry a child.  Only we understand what it's like to leave that child for the first time.  Only we understand the pressure of balancing a marriage with motherhood with a career with a thousand other things. Only we understand the pressure that society puts on us to assume a role that is unattainable or perhaps we don't even want - the ability to do it all with a smile on our faces.

We can have husbands, children, mothers, fathers, and siblings, but when crisis strikes, we need more than family backing us up.  We need a village.  I'm so happy to have so many amazing women in mine, and moving forward, I am going to make it a priority to foster these relationships I have a little  more.  More dinners, more heart to hearts, more phone calls.  No matter what is going on in life.

Thank you, friends.  You know who you are.  :)