What greater goodness can we know?

What greater goodness can we know than Christlike friends whose gentle ways strengthen our faith, enrich our days?

Each Life That Touches Ours for Good

(LDS Hymns #293)

Friends.  This simple word brings to my mind a multitude of memories - faces, places, laughter, tears.  Throughout my life I have been blessed with good friends who "strengthen my faith, enrich my days".  In each place we have lived I count myself fortunate to have made friends who I still consider sisters, individuals whom, when we meet again, we jump right back in as though we were never apart.

This morning I received an email from one of these friends.  She is dear to me, though we have really only met once.  In some ways it is strange that such a friendship should blossom.  She and her husband were in one of the wards in Dan's mission and he, as a missionary, developed a strong bond with them.  Shortly after we were married we visited and they were kind enough to let us stay in their home.  That was 11 years ago.  I have not seen her since.  She has since had another child, whom I have never met, and her oldest (who was only 4 at the time) is now a vibrant, beautiful young woman. 

Yet somehow we have become friends.  We used to talk on the phone about once every 6 months or so, but now we follow each other's blogs and email back and forth.  It is irregular, but always a joy.  For whatever reason I was blessed to have her come into my life.

Do you ever feel like you must have been friends with someone in the pre-existence?  I often think that our friendships here are just a continuation of something eons older than we can comprehend.

So here's a shout out to all my dear friends over the years - all of you wonderful women who follow my blog and worry for me and laugh at me and with "the gentlest hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping and, with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away."