When I was growing up, my mom would tell me “you make the BEST friend.” She was observing some innate qualities important to relationships…but she was also observing that I tended to do a lot of the work, and that the gifts I shared with my friends were not always reciprocated: “one sort is a friend when it suits [her], but [s]he will not be with you in time of distress.” It took years to re-learn how to be a good friend, and how to locate others able to share in mutual, life-giving friendships with roots in the Creator’s abiding love for us all.
Recently, I’ve been grateful for a few precious friends in my life, and recognizing in a new ways the power of their friendship. These women are shelter, are life-saving remedy. No sum can balance their worth. Today, I’m taking an extra minute to thank God for these gifts beyond price.
—Catherine Ruffing Drotleff serves as the Director of Development for the Ignatian Spirituality Project.