Make New Friends, but Keep the Old

By

Gerry Niskern

A friend is a person you meet who likes you for what you are, not what you have done. They see beneath to outside shell to the real you, and they like you, anyway!

I lost my best friend last year. After 62 years, he can never be replaced. Many long time friends are gone too  and I  need to make new ones,  but it is HARD!

I think back to some friends that I had as a kid and how easy it was. In first grade I spent all  my recesses  See-Sawing with a little boy named Matthew. Unlike most of the other boys in our little country school, he was quiet and easy-going. He had rosy cheeks, blue eyes, and blond curly hair. Years later, when my third child was born I saw rosy cheeks, blue eyes, and a a wisp of blond hair. I knew immediately his name would be Matthew.

In Junior Hi my best friend was an early bloomer. Much to my mother’s dismay, she introduced me to the latest hit songs, the current dance steps, and boys! Since her mother worked, she had lots of chores to do. We cooked all kinds of food and she let me bake my first cake. Scariest of all, she helped me lay out a pattern on material I bought with baby sitting money and taught me how to sew a dress.

Our best friends are the ones who encourage us to strive and achieve. They bring out the best in us. The great comfort of a true friendship is that you have to explain nothing. You just know.

Lucky is the parent whose adult children have grown into adult friends. They talk in an easy shorthand, breaking into each others thoughts, without having to clarify or explain.

I’m thinking of the old Girl Scout song that goes,, “Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, the other gold” I couldn’t say it better myself!