A Good Friend

My 13 year old has a really sweet group of friends.  She has a surprisingly big network of nice friends, but in particular I am speaking of her cluster of 4 good buddies.  They are very silly, but very supportive of one another.  My daughter got a text at 8:00 last Saturday morning from one of them wishing her good luck on her all-county orchestra audition.  They decided to do a little secret Santa lunch party on the last day before break.  That kind of thing.

Today we Rozelles pulled out a marathon shopping afternoon.  On the Saturday before Christmas. Further initiation into the world of 2 career families with a busy teenager. While I was selecting a birthday card for my dad, my daughter said "I would like to buy this for (one of her buddies whose parents just divorced)."  It was a supportive "so things have been rough, hang in there" kind of card.  She bought it with her own money and said she was going to have the other 2 buddies sign it.

When I see evidence of my children's true compassion, I feel a sense of deep peace.  Partly because they display character and give us a reason to hope in our future generations. But I also love to see this group of girls forming a supportive community, a safe haven in their turbulent adolescent world.  I love it.  She's going to be ok, my girl.  When life gets ugly, she will know how to draw on the strength of her circle of girlfriends.  And even more wonderful, she already knows how to give of herself to bolster the spirits of others. She knows how to be a good friend.