Chitty Chats with Stacy

reflection 11
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[00:00:00] Good morning, friends. Happy Monday. I am cruising back to Colorado from Wyoming. It's a beautiful day today and I have been thinking this last week on friendship. So reflection this week is definitely about friendship. I had a couple situations that happened this weekend. Uh, one, my bestie, My BFF, who's been in my life for, gosh, 20 some years, uh, probably around 22, 23 years.

Uh, was down from Montana and came to Colorado and stopped at my house, got to Spend the night at my house, got to see her and her [00:01:00] family, even though it was super late. And then was able to drive to Colorado, uh, for an hour and just have breakfast with her and her family. And my husband and I got to do that.

And I was just thinking, what a gift. I am so, so grateful to have a space where they can show up at 1130 at night and just crash and get up in the morning and head out. And they have done that for me. I've seen that for me numerous times when I have been in billings or I've been traveling and I need a place to stay and it's funny how friendships are created and so I've been thinking about that piece.

of how that adds value and one of my favorite things about my relationship with this particular person is every day we text each other three things that we are grateful for each day and it's a [00:02:00] gratitude practice we've done this now we did it for a year then we stopped doing it for a little bit of time and then we've been doing it gosh i would say almost another year uh and it's a way to stay connected every single day Every day, I love that.

It also is nice to know that, I mean, I live alone part time, and so sometimes it's the only other contact I might have with an adult outside of work, uh, and that's pretty awesome, even though in our busy lives, we can't always have a conversation, it's just something to really look forward to and to share with someone, uh, I also just think friendship is such an interesting thing, right, as we get older, it's so much more difficult to make friends, to connect with people, to build relationships.

And so I'm deeply, deeply grateful for this friend that has been a part of my life for [00:03:00] such a long period of time and has been through a lot of ups and downs with me. And so one of the things I appreciate about friends who've been in my life for a long time is that they've seen different versions of me.

Uh, they've, I've seen young Stacey who didn't have any children and was starting a career. And they've seen Stacey who's exhausted from parenting. And they've seen Stacey who's gone through a divorce. And Stacey who dated and Stacey who fell in love again, and Stacey who's been in the military, and Stacey who's momming teenagers, and been through some hard things, and divorce and separation, and parallel parenting, and all the things that come with that.

And so, for those friends that have been in my life for a long time, I'm deeply grateful. I also know that's a very rare quality. [00:04:00] So, it was such a great weekend to just reflect on that. And then I had this other situation where, uh, a couple things, like I grew up in a very, very small town. Well, I mean, I wouldn't say, I've definitely hung out in smaller towns, but I grew up in Rollins, Wyoming.

So at the time when I graduated, our graduating class was about 100, 110 people. So, small graduating class, but there are definitely places on the planet that have much smaller classes. So I, I'm aware of that. I, I understand that. Uh, but, you know, it's been interesting. When you're From Rawlins, everyone, uh, you, you run into people who know people, who know people of know people, like you're just connected in a way that I don't know that, I mean, maybe other people, other places on the planet are like that, but, uh, especially Wyoming, Wyoming is just a small state and I've had [00:05:00] multiple interactions across the world where I've run into someone from Wyoming and you know mutual people because there's.

What? 600, 000 people in the whole state. So, uh, I had a couple interactions this weekend where somebody who was a pretty big part of my life in high school, uh, and I haven't seen for gosh, 30 plus years, um, 29 years, I guess, uh, until the fall. Uh, has re entered my life, and it's been a lot of fun, and I just was able to meet up with him and his wife this weekend, and my husband and I, and it was just a, it was just a beautiful gift.

Uh, you know, I haven't necessarily kept in touch with a lot of people, but when you're from a small town, you run into people, and that was super fun. And then, had an experience where I had to get [00:06:00] my internet changed, uh, or re hooked up. In this new house that we purchased and the person hooking up my internet is a guy I went to high school with and so it was fun to just catch up and do all of that and so it's for me as I reflect on friendship, uh, especially as I have teenagers and I'm thinking about their own experiences and, you know, growing up today is so different than how I grew up and it's a much different experience.

I think that these kids are having. These days and not all good to be honest. I think when you have access to social media and People on the regular. It's not all good There's not a lot of breaks. There are definitely some great parts to it So I want to be clear about that, but it's a very different experience And so when I think about that and I run into these [00:07:00] people from my life decades ago, I'm just very Thankful that I had an experience where I feel fondly of most of the people I run into and I feel, uh, happy and grateful that I had these people in my life during that moment in time decades ago that added a lot of value.

And now it's just become this beautiful blessing later in life where I can go, yeah, that was, I have very positive experiences and memories and feel fondly about these humans. And then. I also have this very deep meaningful friendship with this beautiful woman who has seen a lot of different sides of my life and still keeps showing up and loving me and, uh, also get to participate in understanding her children and loving her [00:08:00] kids and her husband and they do the same for mine.

And so that power of friendship is just not lost on me. And I feel so grateful to have her. I love that. And I, I want to hear about your best friend or your friend that you are feeling really, really fondly of these days. And so tell me about a meaningful story of friendship. I want to, drop me a line, uh, comment on this post.

I definitely think friendship is hugely important and as we get older it seems more rare and rare. And I just feel very grateful to get to have these experiences. So. Look forward to hearing from you. Have a great week.