Lent: Fazoli's and Bathrooms

Blessing #2: Friendship

I am so grateful for my friends, from the ones whose family met up with mine at Fazoli's, to the ones who just spent a ton of time with me, holed up in a bathroom - they are a G-dsend.

Maybe I met you on the map, painted onto the blacktop.

Maybe I met you at a family get-together.

Maybe I met you on an airplane, on the way to Korea.

Maybe I met you while sitting in the cafeteria.

Maybe I met you through other friends.

Maybe I met you doing music.

Maybe I met you by crashing your birthday party.

Maybe, along the same lines, I met you by crashing your TESOL party.

Maybe I met you at work.

Wherever I met you, I'm very grateful to you right now.

I want to take a moment to recount something I saw the other day that got me thinking about how special my friends are.

I was eating lunch at Han's Deli (The links give info on a Han's Deli in a DIFFERENT town, but it's the only one I could find.), which isn't a deli at all, when this group of two families came in.  They promptly separated - adults and kids.  They were all smiles, apparently used to this setting.  This was definitely not their first time doing this.  

I watched as the adults chatted, seemingly grateful for the reprise of a safe location in which they could be adults.  The kids seemed quite content to do their own thing (I kept a sharp eye out for any hint of "Finger Mother, May I?" - I saw it not).

I couldn't help but smile, because I had lived out this scenario, too.  Growing up, my family met up with another at Fazoli's for "Italian" fast-food, endless breadsticks, and hours of contained, adult-child segregation.  Honestly, meeting them at Fazoli's afterward was the only thing I enjoyed about church back then.  Our families have managed to keep in touch over the years, and, while the relationship now looks very different, I feel that the Fazoli's meetings laid a groundwork for a relationship that can be picked up at a moment's notice, no matter how many years have lapsed.  I pray the same will happen for the family I observed at Han's Deli.


Where did your most treasured friendships begin?

***Don't forget to sign the petition to save refugees from North Korea!***