Fortunately I was warned before I moved here.  We live in an area of Utah which is full of families who don’t really move too far away from one another, therefore many people do not feel the need to make friends outside of their family.  Since I was prepared this hasn’t bothered me.  I am happy for them to have family nearby, yet I am sorry that so many this means their life may be lacking in the type of friendship in which I have been so blessed.

Talk to me for about two minutes and I will somehow have communicated to you how deeply I feel about family.  Family is everything to me.  They’re the BEST!  Yet when I contemplate my friends…. Wow!  They have brought such a fullness to my life.

I’ve come to this conclusion.  Family is the staff of life – it is the meal.  Picture a plate of pot roast with mashed potatoes and gravy, a vegetable, salad and a slice of homemade bread.  Here is family – the meal that sustains us.  Friends are the spice of life.  At a minimum our meal needs salt and pepper, perhaps some garlic and definitely some sort of dressing on the salad and butter on the bread.

Friends take that hearty meal and give it flavor.  If I had to choose between a potato and a few shakes of salt … I would certainly choose the potato.  Family is my life, and friends make my life delicious.

disclaimer – Obviously my very best friends are within my family with Mark being the best! I am also enjoying the beginnings of several friendships with some great women here in Utah – I’m just speaking in generalities to honor all of those I cherish as friends.