I am so extraordinarily

blessed to have good friends. Great friends, in fact. My friends are all

different. There is no running theme. I'd be hard put to come up with

three things I have "in common" with most of my friends.

I have a number

of old friends, folks I have known and loved for more than 30 years. I

have friends that fit into the 20 year category and those I have known

for less than a decade.

I made a new

friend about three weeks ago, a jewel of a person, warm, generous, and

real. I like real! On Sunday July 13, I made yet another friend. Now,

this one was somebody with whom I had a great deal in common (scary, huh?).

New friends

are great too, especially the ones you feel like you have known forever

and it's awesome the way they just fit in so smoothly among all the oldies.

Not all friends

are bosom buddies. Not all are potential confidantes. Some friends are

just fun to be with. You find it's easier to laugh and play with some

more than others. You may have the perfect friend with whom to take yoga

lessons, go horseback riding, weed the garden, or just share a glorious

sunset.

One finds potential

friends among immediate and extended family, in the workplace, at church,

in clubs and organizations, even while traveling. Granted, you may consider

some of these folks to be friends for only a few hours, but you easily

know their value!

I have known

and loved my friend Cindy since I was fourteen. We were best friends for

many years. In our youth, nothing went unsaid or misunderstood. Strangely,

our differences far outweighed our similarities and they still do.

So last week,

when Cindy and I were talking about dying again (she's in the hospice

program in her home town and is slowly losing her 25 year cancer battle)

I should not have been so taken aback.

In the course

of our conversation, after I had made several references to both being

cured and being healed, Cindy asked, "What's the difference?"

Her question

should not have surprised me. It should not have caught me so off guard.

I should have been prepared to hear her say that. But I wasn't, and it

broke my heart.

It's strange

how we can go through life and think we know another person so well. Cindy

is a biologist. She has taught biology and physics at the high school

and college level. She is truly brilliant. She loves animals, all animals.

She likes to laugh and play. Today she is still as fun-loving and childlike

as when we were kids. Her giggle hasn't changed a bit. It's awesome to

be able to hold on to such traits.

Perhaps the

way she has stayed alive, through all these years of recurring cancer,

is by staying focused on finding a cure; that and just blatantly defying

death with that extraordinarily strong, stubborn and fun-loving will of

hers.

Yet death comes

and if you are lucky, before it comes, either before or after you realize

you cannot be cured, you do get healed. But my friend Cindy said she did

not know the difference.

For many weeks

now we have talked about old hurts deep inside her heart that she still

holds on to. The kind that, if you hold them close enough, and wrap yourself

up tight enough with them, then they create a shell that folks can't penetrate

to hurt you again.

You can't really

fault somebody for the defenses they devise. As my heart broke for my

sick friend, I thought of my other friend Cindy. I called her. I knew

she would pray.

Now that's

pretty darn close to the top of the pile. There are no words to describe

the friend who can and will pray for you. But it gets better.

You see, as

I talked to the second Cindy, I started to cry. I had needed to cry for

weeks. The tears exploded. I wondered if they were dripping on her at

the other end of the phone line!

I poured out

my heart and my tears flowed. Some time, you reach a point where there

is nothing left to give except your tears. So I cried for Cindy number

one. And once more I recognized the ultimate jewel of a friend that Cindy

number two is. When I reached the end of all my words, when there were

only tears left, they flowed, Cindy prayed and Heaven opened.

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