Friendship

If you read my post the other day, you know that a good friend of mine's husband is in the hospital in a coma.  It's been 72 hours now and there has only been the slightest ray of hope.  It is very discouraging but we are continuing to pray.

One of the areas I want to improve myself is in the art of hospitality.  I guess because my parents very rarely entertained, and then it was only family, I never really learned how to entertain.  I've learned over the years how to be a pretty good hostess, and I can throw together a dinner for 16 at the drop of a hat, but usually my entertaining consists of cooking for family, small groups of ladies like a craft night or Bunco, or our Bible study group.  I know my husband wishes I would do more in the way of having other couples over.

Part of this area also involves developing friendships with other women.  I know that I've been very dependent upon my mother and my daughter for female friendship.  I have other friends, but I'm not very good at the lunch thing.  Part of it is my natural thriftiness at spending that much money for lunch, but a lot of it is that I just don't want to spend the time.  After losing my mother this spring, and watching her world shrink because she wasn't very good at the friendship thing, I decided that I don't want to put that much pressure on my daughter.  I don't want to end up with no friends outside of family. Recently I reconnected with several friends from high school through Facebook, and have gone out to lunch with them a couple times.  They are friendships that I'd like to continue to develop.

Circling back to the first paragraph of this post, in visiting the hospital to see my friend, I've come to know another lady from my church that I seem to click with.  She recognized it also and asked for my phone number so we can plan a get together.  I kind of feel like I'm making some progress.  Maybe, if I ever get my house organized, I'll even tackle inviting another couple or two over for dinner!

~Jane