day sixteen | friendship

prompt: friendship
How has a friend changed you or your perspective on the world this year? Was the this change gradual, or a sudden burst?
(Author: Martha Mihalick)

It took me a long time today to put some thought into my approach to the prompt. Another challenge to how much I share. I am learning that the more I share the more I'm shielded from mean. After all, if I can give voice to my fears, my joys, my challenges, how can anyone come at me with that same information in a negative light and hurt me?

The fact of the matter is that I am an introvert often find myself to be socially awkward - it actually gets worse the older I get! I have a blog to give myself the voice I find stifled in my everyday world. I have opinions and ideas and the expression of those ideas are given a voice, growing in volume, right here on the www.

I don't have a large circle of friends, what I do have is a good circle of friends; a genuine group of kind hearted, generous spirited women who accept me as I am just as I accept who they are, the good, the bad, all of it. To me more is not better, more is just more.

This year (maybe a little more) presented many challenges to me. Though I have always felt I had something to contribute to the world, I was content not to define what that was nor did I have the courage or fortitude to do anything about it. With the encouragement of friends, and a special group of women I greatly admire, I left my safe place and did two things:

1. embraced authenticity in my writing, blogging and memory keeping
2. submitted my work to publishers, blogs and design teams

Had you asked me last year if this was possible for me to do either of those two things, I would have laughed and thanked you for your kindness. Then I would have given you a firm "no".

Without my friends; real, virtual, related, unexpected; and all respected, none of this past year of confidence, creativity and courage would have been possible. Now there's no turning back!