What a wonderful day! Our dear friends arrived for a few days. They just finished a Balkin cruise. We want to hear all about it, and may stop running our mouths long enough to let them tell us.
They arrived about 3:30 and we were soon out to look around and check out my favorite shops. There is something about girl shopping that is special, so we are going to have to figure out how to ditch those boys one day. Dinner was at Stora Antis. We tried our old standards plus potato pancakes that Sandy declared tasted just like her grandma used to make. Delicious as always.
Having them here got me to thinking. I firmly believe that for most people, there are a few zip codes in which they naturally flourish, and it may not be near their zip code of origin. They find it later. Some people end up living much of their lives in zip codes quite unnatural to them because of job opportunity. Fortunately, most learn to adapt with at least some semblance of grace. Delicate flower that I am, I never accepted winter in Ohio, though I loved fall, and the gray days were often hard for me. I don't think it was the cold that bothered me as much as it was the snow or even worse, the threat of snow and the possibility that I would have to drive to or from work in it. We didn't take advantage of as many things in Cleveland during the winter because I was afraid of venturing "so far from home" in case weather got bad. Such a big baby. I found that when asked where I was from, I substituted the word "live" for "from". I think dread of winter colored my life all year round. and during winter I was one big whine. On the acceptance with grace scale, I had nothing to be proud of.
That said, I would not trade the opportunity of living in Akron for anything in the world. What wonderful friends we have from our time there. There are many definitions of the word friend, I'm sure. Here is the way I look at it. There are the more casual type friends that you love dearly and enjoy thoroughly but would feel shy to ask for a favor, even though they would be glad to do whatever you asked, and you would be glad to do the same for them. I have trouble with that asking part anyway, of course. Then there are the friends you feel comfortable (or as comfortable as you get in that situation) asking for a favor. I think Lyndon Johnston spoke of them as people you could ask to go to the well with you. Probably had to do with the olden days when times were bad between white guys and Native Americans, but I don't know.
In Akron and Tallmadge and Medina I was fortunate to make a number of friends that I could ask to go to the well with me and they would stop whatever they were doing and go. And besides that, they are smart, clever, not always the same thing, funny, fun, interesting, generous, loving people. Most have wicked senses of humor, which I love. They are also people who more than give back to their community, a trait I need to develop once we get back to Villa Rica.
When we add those friends to the ones wehave made during our previous stops on the road and our families, you just don't get much more blessed than we are.
Well, maybe there should be an offering or something at the end of this sermon.
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