That's What Friends Are For!

My dear friend, Peggy Whitson, is here from Illinois for a visit. Having her here is such a blessing. I wonder if there's anything as uplifting as friends who have known you for a long, long time. In Peggy's case, the poor woman has had to put up with me since the late seventies. Yes, THAT long.

The woman's a saint.

Few people know me as well as Peggy. And few people can make me laugh as hard or as long as she. And few people can speak truth to my heart and spirit like she does. All of which just makes me cherish her more.

Interesting thing is, we're quite different when it comes to our personalities. But God has used that to help us teach and refine each other. I get her to giggle like a little kid; she stirs me to integrity and transparency.   I'm the Golden Retriever to her Terrier. And I love that. And I love how God also breathed similarities into us. Some of those similarities might seem...bad. We both deal with asthma and fibromyalgia. We both struggle with memory issues. We both are fighting diabetes. But here's what's so cool about it: because we truly understand these things from the inside out, we are able to encourage one another. And laugh. Oh! How we laugh. Like the time we went hiking here in Oregon, up a trail that was decidedly more difficult than two asthmatics should have hiked, and we had to stop every few minutes to wheeze and suck on our inhalers. Not so much because the hike was hard, though it certainly was. But because we were laughing so hard. We joked that we'd probably pass out, or even expire right then and there on the path. But we'd go out knowing we'd TRIED, and we'd be smiling.

Peggy and I share something else: She is a writer, too. Not just a writer, but a really good writer. She sees life in ways that make me stop and think, and she's so honest in what she writes. I love reading her work. Which is why I'm so tickled that, just today, she started a blog, Life in the Fog. I'm delighted to tell you about and, in this small way, share one of God's greatest gifts in my life--the inimitable Peggy--with you. So go visit her blog, and if you like it, go back. And hey, tell her I sent ya.

She needs to know how much she owes me.