From High School Musical to Scooby Doo

I’ve watched this blinking cursor through three musical numbers of High School Musical. That’s a long time in parent years.  I’m not sure why this particular prompt is giving me so much trouble but I think it’s because I struggle with friendship in general.  Not because I have a hard time with people, but because I have a hard time with persons.  I enjoy people… because I don’t have to get to know them individually.  They remain a collective noun.  When they are persons, though, I have to start actually engaging.  This is where the trouble begins.

What people might mistake for ‘aloof’ is actually ‘shy’.  What they might think is ‘snobbery’ is actually ‘caution’.  Of course, I never bother to correct the misconceptions.  Neither am I offended by them.  It once bothered me that people would think the wrong things about me, but in the time it has taken me to write these two short paragraphs — which has been the timespan of High School Musical and an episode of Scooby Doo — it occurred to me that the very few who I allow into my world and have gotten to know me know the truth and so that is all that matters to me.

My best friend, Shayleen, has known me since high school.  We know all our secrets.  We know all the joys and trials of marriage and motherhood.  I’ve written already about  her here.

Clearly this past year has been a tremendous struggle for me and my family.  One of the things my husband and I have learned the most this last year is the meaning of true and real friendship.  I was able to rely a great deal on Shayleen and her mother this past year.  She was able to provide me soil in which my roots could grow.

And truly that’s what anybody needs in friendship — soil for her roots to grow.