I Have The Best Friends and Coworkers In The World...

     I was sitting at work this evening, after yet another long and tiring tour of duty, when two of my coworkers (who I am also thankful to call friends) mentioned to me they have enjoyed and continue to read "Brain Cheese".  I have to say, I was a bit shocked by this revelation because I was quite certain the novelty of my ramblings had surely worn off by now!

     My favorite male buddy, who I'll call Roger (because that's his name), says to me, "No, I read it because it's kind of like a check in.  I wonder what's happening in your world today."  Now those may not have been his exact words, but I have memory problems so they're close enough.

     Then my dearest friend, T, (I don't call her by her full name, so "T" is who she will be known as) the woman who's social life I live through vicariously because she HAS a social life, says to me, "Yeah I read it too, every night when I get home from work."  I was double shocked.

     There are so many things in my life I take for granted on a daily basis...so many physical things and comforts I have grown used to...so many niceties and daily expectations I have built my life around.  I am slowly realizing many of the things I once thought were a "given" aren't and many of the things I thought I had to struggle to obtain come much more easily if I cease to struggle.  It is easy for me to become so wrapped up in my MS, my job, and my personal fears that I become oblivious to the things that really matter most in my life.

     If Multiple Sclerosis has taught me anything, it has been the importance and value of friends...MY friends in particular.  Without my friends, I would be lost on open waters, sailing without a course.  It only takes little moments like tonight to remind me where my support comes from and how my friends are the "rudder" for my ship...always there, steering me quietly underwater, and asking little in return.

     So today's blog is a salute to "all y'all"...my sweet, silly, serious, cantankerous, intelligent, caring, dramatic, sarcastic, wonderful and dear friends!  And YOU know who you are, so names are not important here...thank you for all you bring to my life, my work, and my soul.  I would surely be lost without you...