Tuesday, January 25, 2011

"And I hear them saying you'll never change things, and no matter what you do it's still the same thing.  But it's not the world that I am changing.  I do this so this world will know that it will not change me." - Garth Brooks "The Change"

One of my closest friends is a 43 year old man who lives half a world away with a beautiful wife and three beautiful children.  He has an amazing job and is incredibly successful.  From the outside looking in, you would think that he has everything, and yet, every time we speak, send an email or otherwise communicate, he says "thank you for choosing me today."  I found this odd because why would he care if someone from Buttfuck, Alberta was his friend?

So I asked him about it one day and he told me that every day that I wake up, I make a choice.  I "choose" to be his friend.  It isn't something that he can force me to do and that my choice is important to him.  That every day we speak, it causes him to want to be a better friend, a better parent, a better husband and that he is grateful for the changes in his life that have happened because of our friendship.

I never really thought about people making a choice to be my friend.  I am the sort of girl who used to "buy" my friends, be over accommodating, and determined to be the "best friend ever", when really, the people I call my friend are the ones who choose to be mine every day, not because of what I do for them, but because of what being my friend means to them.  I don't want them to choose me because of what I can do, but because being my friend has intrinsic value in their life.

Thank you for choosing me today.