There's No Place Like Home

I had the opportunity to go back home this last weekend to a wedding reception for a good family friend. Given that my going home only entails driving 13 miles to Washington, it wasn't too big of a deal for me. This family has been like a second family to me my whole entire life. I can't remember a day passing without either being there or having them at our home.

I have to confess I was a little nervous because I hadn't seen some of them including my best friend growing up, in several years. I was worried that we wouldn't have much in common, and even less to talk about. It turns out nothing could have been farther from the truth. From the minute we got out of the car until 3 hours later when we had finished helping them take down and clean the place up, it was as if I had never left. We sat and talked and I was perfectly at ease. We were welcomed in just like family, and in reality that's what we all consider each other anyway. I knew when it took us half an hour just to get into the wedding line, and then the father called out to my wife "hey gorgeous" that things were good.

If any of my three readers out there have ever experienced this type of atmosphere, you know how awesome it is. I felt like I was at a family reunion, and to make everything even better, the family I hadn't seen in years is doing so much better than they were when I left. They have almost all gone through the temple and I couldn't ask for more for them.

As I drove home that night, I couldn't help but think about true friends. We gain many friends as we travel through this life, but rarely do we have many TRUE friends. We have lots of people we can count as friends, but this type of friend, a childhood friend that you could still sit and talk with and rely on if you needed anything is a rare thing in this world. We should strive to cultivate more of these types of relationships.