Who cares if we're in a recession? I'm a fortune-aire!

"Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, and the other gold."

I had lunch with my best friend from junior high and high school a few weeks ago. She said, "I'll never forget, one of the first things you said to me was that you had enough friends. I don't know what made me stick around." Lousy first impression, that's me.

The funny thing was that I didn't have very many friends. In fact, I was pretty much in the habit of having only one friend at a time...at least only one best friend. It took quite a few years and a really good example to teach me the concept of a circle of friends.

I still make a pretty bad first impression. One dear friend looked back on our first meeting and described me as 'standoffish.' Another, very sweetly, says that I observe people before I decide if they are worthy of my emotional investment. (That's why she made the inner circle...she 'gets' me.) I may be slow to make friends, but once I do, I hang on to them!

My oldest friend moved into the neighborhood when we were in the fourth grade. I don't talk to her often, but I love her as much as ever.

The friend I learned the most from is waiting on the other side now, and I can't wait to see her when I get there.

Another one lives just down the road. I talk to her almost every day.

One lives across the country, and she takes me in when life turns upside down.

One taught me how to bake cookies, and shared books and secrets and big phone bills.

It's quite a collection really: a retiree, a photographer, a PhD, a realtor, a sister, a teacher, two redheads (!)...and I'm keeping my eyes open and my radar on.

There's a quote I love that says, "However rare true love may be, it is less so than true friendship," (La Rochefoucauld -1665). I have been miraculously blessed with many truly rare treasures! I may not be so good at making first impressions, but I'm a whiz at recognizing the good investments!