The Practical Free Spirit

I hung out with one of my close friends last night. I hadn’t seen him in a while because I’d been sick, and then more sick, and then he’d been out of town. We sat on my couch for a few hours, catching up, swapping stories, and possibly consuming a sugary substance. And when he left I realized us hanging out had been like taking a nice big gulp of fresh air.

I was going to post a photo with human friends, but then I didn’t want to leave anybody out, so here is me with my best dog friend instead.

There’s something special about good friends. They make us feel more connected, more grounded, and more known. So I’m taking a moment out to appreciate all the awesomeness that is a good friend.

1. A good friend sometimes contacts you, out of the blue, just because.
2. A good friend will sometimes let you pick where you’re going to eat, like when you’ve been having a sushi craving for the last week and a half or a peanut butter pie craving forever.
3. A good friend lets you tell a weird story that kind of doesn’t have any point but is also kind of interesting. Hopefully.
4. A good friend respects you and your opinion.
5. A good friend listens.
6. A good friend calls you on your bs.
7. A good friend participates in your annual birthday week glut of celebrations with good humor.
8. A good friend doesn’t mind when you call them up crying.
9. A good friend talks to you about their life: their excitements and their problems and their thoughts and their hopes.
10. A good friend asks you about your life too.
11. A good friend celebrates with you when something happy happens and comforts you when something sad happens.
12. A good friend doesn’t judge so you can relax and really be yourself.
13. A good friend tells you when something is wrong.
14. A good friend doesn’t make you feel bad for feeling how you feel. But a good friend also helps you stop wallowing.
15. A good friend can tell when you’re interested in someone even when you weren’t intending to talk about that.
16. A good friend knows you aren’t perfect and likes you anyway.
17. A good friend takes an interest in your dog just because they know how much you love her.
18. A good friend asks about your book. But they don’t ask how the agent hunt is going because they know you’d tell them if there was anything interesting to tell.
19. A good friend laughs with you. A lot.
20. A good friend understands when you have to say no.
21. A good friend knows how to empathize.
22. A good friend knows how to have fun.
23. A good friend can geek out with you about whatever you both love: Star Trek, or Settlers of Catan, or Orphan Black, or dancing, or London, or baking cookies, or something else.
24. A good friend believes in you.
25. A good friend sometimes offers to bring you soup when you’re sick. Or tissues. Or cough medicine.
26. A good friend tells you how much you mean to them.
27. A good friend allows you to be silly. Even very silly.
28. A good friend doesn’t push you when you don’t want to talk about something.
29. A good friend lets you make your own decisions.
30. A good friend knows who you are.

What does being a good friend mean to you?