Life is better with friends.  I am so thankful for all of the wonderful people God has placed in my life.  I have the privilege of knowing many people of all ages from many places around the world.  Some are acquaintances I know only a little, other relationships are deeper and there are those that are like family, and my “bosom friends and kindred spirits” to quote Anne Shirley. Many friends live far away, yet it doesn’t matter how much time passes, we always pick up right where we’d let off.

I lived in my childhood home until the day I got married.  I have certainly made up for my lack of moving since!  My kids will often count the homes they’ve lived in, but I gave up somewhere along the way.  If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say 20, not necessarily counting the transitional spots. In fact, when we bought a hobby farm, we had grown weary of the gypsy lifestyle and thought that would be the place to put down roots.  We even dubbed it “Dunmovin’ Farm” to assert that thought. However, such was not our course in life and -surprise!- we have moved “once or twice” since.  Being a part of the family of God means that  while it is difficult to leave friends and family behind, those moves will be made a little easier knowing that we would have immediate connections through our local church. What a blessing to meet someone for the first time, and feel like you’ve known them most of your life.

We recently visited with some friends like that.  Though we’ve only known each other a few short years, God intertwined our paths in a marvellous way and they are truly precious to us. Two of the couples are related.  We are friends with the parents (who are about our age), but we are also friends with their lovely daughter and her husband.  It’s interesting that as you get older, age has very little significance in such relationships. We love them all like family and are blessed equally by them, but differently.  We can share our feelings openly with one another, encourage one another, learn from one another and enjoy just being together.  These two families will soon be moving across the country, and we will miss them terribly!  Selfishly, we would love to see them stay put (after all we just moved closer!); but, we are also excited for them as they give up the comfort of the familiar to do something to which God has called them.

The family we stayed with on our visit is one of those families that welcomes you in as a long lost cousin.  We feel right at home with them, our daughters are like sisters and we are thankful for the opportunities we’ve had to get to know them better.  My friend is from Guatemala and she and her husband were missionaries in El Salvador, before moving back to Canada.  During our stay with them, she showed me how to make authentic tacos right down to home-made corn tortillas.  I love learning new things, especially from sweet friends like her!  I tried my hand at forming the tortillas; mine were definitely not as pretty as hers, but they weren’t too bad for a first effort.  I bought myself some Maseca and I will certainly make these on our next taco night!

*I wish I could share the recipe, but she just added water to the Maseca till it was the right consistency…I’m hoping I can remember myself when I try my hand at it at home…

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