Friendship is Powerfully Hopeful

The blog challenge prompt for today is: please tell us how the power of friendship helps you maintain hope.

Friendship is wonderful on so many levels. Friends are the people we choose to love and share our lives with. People who know us and love us anyway.

And I'm not talking about acquaintances, or facebook "friends" or fair-weather friends who disappear the minute your life gets complicated and messy. I'm talking about true friends. What a blessing.

Spending time with my friends always leaves me feeling refreshed, loved, seen, understood and normal. They still see me as me. They don't see a sick person. They don't see a woman with no career. They don't see a trivial housewife. They know I am more and it shows. My chronic pain isn't a barrier to our interaction, it's not something to overcome. My friends are amazing people and I'm so glad to call them friends.

When we get together we laugh and carry on as though no time had passed and nothing was different. It doesn't take long for me to start seeing myself through their eyes and seeing past the changes all these years of chronic pain has forced on me.

I only wish I could see them more often. Since we live so far apart we only get together once every year or two. Thanks to social media and texting we are able to stay in touch between but I miss having more regular face-to-face time.

My best friend is my hubby. I consider myself incredibly lucky to have found such a wonderful man to spend my life with. He is supportive and loving. He brightens my days with playful banter and a great sense of humor. He has stood by me and loved me through the development of my chronic migraines and fibromyalgia. His encouragement, love and friendship helps me cope with it all. I don't know what I would do without him - truly.

To say that friendship is powerful and supports hope in my life is a huge understatement.