Any body out there an ex-Brownie Scout?  I remember, as a little girl being a Brownie Scout and learning the song”

“Make new friends, but keep the old,

One is silver and the other gold!”

     We all have family that we are born into and then there is family, that we choose.  Those are friends, friends for life.  Last night I watched Jay Leno’s last show.  At the end of his show, he explained why he never went to another network when he left the Tonight Show, the first time.  He explained that for the 22 years he had been with NBC, he had worked with, what he felt, were family.  The first year he started with NBC, he lost his mother, the second year, his father and a few years later, his brother.  So, the only family he had left were his colleagues and friends at NBC.

     Sometimes, we forget who our real friends are.  Are they the 100 FRIENDS on FB?  There’s someone I know who refers to everyone he/she meets as a “friend.”  And, I’m like, how are they a friend?  How do you define that?  Do you really have 300 best friends?  Really? It’s almost like it’s said as a status symbol!

     My definition must be way different.  I think social media may have redefined that word but for me, I know who my friends are.  Do they change throughout your life?  Yes, occasionally they do, but there is always a core.  A core, if your blessed, of 5 people, (in my opinion) maybe less.  And, I think, one of the determining factor is time.  People that have been with you, over the years, through thick and thin.  People that you don’t always like, but always love.  People who may criticize you, but never judge you. People who can share their deepest, darkest secrets with you and you can do the same, and trust that they will keep them. People who don’t break the promises that they make to you, without a real reason.  People that don’t betray you. People that you can be away from for months or years, but are still there, whenever you need them.  Hard standards to meet?  Maybe.

     I think that people, like myself, who are only children, seek out these people.  Since they don’t have brothers and sisters, they seek out the “goodness of strangers.”  Sometimes that works and sometimes, not so much.  But, I’d bet that their core friendships are larger.  That they have more loving, trusting friends, than others with a large amount of siblings.  Especially, if, like me, they’ve traveled a lot.

So, that brings me back to the old “Brownie” song. “…one is silver and the other gold.” The “Bestie,” the “BFF,” the person(s) who you can count on, no matter what.  Got, one? Two? Three?  You are blessed.  I am blessed.