We Women Need Our Girlfriends!

Love, Love, Love that I am a woman with girlfriends! Women have girlfriends for everything! We even tend to have groups, clubs, "clicks," of girlfriends for different things. For example... I have scrapbooking girlfriends, bunco girlfriends, work girlfriends and church girlfriends. I have girlfriends who inspire me lose weight and work out. I have Beta Sigma Phi girlfriends, Facebook girlfriends and Chingawassa girlfriends (ha ha, don't ask what Chingawassa is). I have girlfriends from high school, college and Alpha Xi Delta sorority. There are mothers of kids in my child's class girlfriends, family members who are also girlfriends, girlfriends of other girlfriends, more recent best friend girlfriends and of course the "Old School" Best Friends Forever girlfriends.

Many of these girlfriends overlap into more than one group, or "click" of friends. Some of my girlfriends I only know, and associate with, one certain area of my life. I have noticed that girlfriends weave in and out of my life. As I need them, as they need me, we grow closer at times and further apart at other times.

With these girlfriends, I have had really good, thoughtful and meaningful conversations. On occasion there have been tears. Sometimes I am the listener, sometimes I am the speaker.

With these girlfriends, I have also laughed so hard I peed my pants. You know the kind of laughter I'm talking about right? I'm talking about the laughter, where you literally fold over and grab your stomach, fall out of your chair, pull over if your driving, can't even breathe and tears are pouring out of your eyeballs kind of laughter. I'm talking about laughing so hard you can't control yourself. You snort or fart or emit some other vile, manly sound from your body. Your friend hears this, so the laughing is even harder, and your stomach hurts and you just want to stop and breathe, but you can't, because it's just so flipping funny!

My girlfriend Suzanne, ("Old School" Best Friend Forever girlfriend) called me this morning for our morning chat. She calls just about every morning between 8:30 and 9:00. Sometimes a bit earlier, sometimes a bit later, but always in the morning. We both grab a cup of coffee and a cigarette and we talk. Depending on the day (chaos, kids, husbands, work) we talk for 5 minutes up to even 30 or 40 minutes. She is almost always the one who calls me, and I love her for that. This mornings chat was usual. Nothing significant or out of the ordinary. Just a quick chat with a long time friend. It's a great way to start the day.

After we hang up the phone, I'm going about getting ready for my day. I get on the scale and see I have lost 3 pounds total this week! I'm thrilled! My first thought is "I can't wait to go email blank and blank (my two "Weight Loss" girlfriends) and blank (my "Work Out" girlfriend) to share with them my success!" As I'm skipping to my laptop, ready to email these girlfriends my dieting progress, it occurs to me how lucky I am to have so many girlfriends, involved in different areas of my life.

We women, complex and emotional beings that we are, need many girlfriends for the different aspects of our lives. Every woman has traits, qualities, life experiences, that no one else has. In order to achieve the most inspiration, to be the most well-rounded, successful and happy that we can possibly be... We women need our girlfriends.