THE STUBBORN ONES

Is it just me? Has anyone else out there found themselves questioning their friendships over the years, since joining facebook? Whenever I reconnect with someone on facebook, after that initial flurry of back and forth messaging where you catch up on everything you've missed over the years, and then spending some time reading their status updates and the comments that their other friends leave for them, I usually end up asking myself one of two things:

A) How did we ever drift so far apart, when we have so very much in common?

OR

B) How did we ever manage to stay friends for so long, when it is now obvious that we are polar opposites on almost every issue?

I mean, honestly. It got me to wonderin' just what my criteria has been when it comes to forming or discarding relationships , and the only common factor I can see is proximity. I'm rather ashamed to admit this, but I have come to the conclusion that I must be a "love the one you're with" kinda gal!

Did I give up on forming deeper relationships because we moved so often, and keeping it light made it easier to leave when the time came? Or was it just that, when I was younger, I was more willing to go with the flow - hide my true feelings in order to blend in? I don't really know. What I do know is that I am ever so grateful for a handful of friends, like Paula and Tim, who absolutely refused to be discarded the way a snake sheds old skin. No matter how often we moved, or where we went, they persisted. They wrote letters. They picked up the phone. They drove all the way down to Kingsville in south Texas, and way out west to Midland. And, because they did, we now have a great history together, and a relationship to be treasured. Thank God for the stubborn ones!