cold tangerines

I'm reading this book right now called "Cold Tangerines," by Shauna Niequist. It's one of those books that I just found while I was strolling through the bookstore. I was having a rough day, to say the least, and I came across this book. "Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the extraordinary nature of everyday life." Well, I'd been having a hard time doing exactly that, and I can't lie....the cover of the book was bright orange, and the title just connected with me (See Post: Mangoes)...I desperately needed a pick-me-up, so I bought it. And then I left it on the shelf. It's this weird thing I do.

Anyways, I found other forms of pick-me-ups--conversations with my dad, playing cards with my mom, laughing hysterically with my best friends, late night drives to donut wheel--and forgot about the book until I got back down to school. Yesterday, I was utterly exhausted from the week, from studying, from working out, from everything, so I took this book with me and I got into the bathtub. That's the best. Reading a book in the bath while listening to music is up there on my "all time favorite things to do list." Last night was no exception.

So this book is a collection of short stories from her life, and the one that really hit me was called "Swimming," and it was about friendship. I don't know if you are blessed with really incredible friends, but I am. I really am. The story talked about the importance of friendship, how friendship takes risk and how it is such a pure form of love.

"Maybe some of what we're doing here is representing the goodness and love of God in tangible ways. You're showing that love to the people in your life and then sometimes they're showing it to you, and when your friend isn't going to make it to the edge of the pool, you jump in with your clothes on and swim next to her."

I mean, wow. How beautiful is that. I was so excited and so touched by this story, I got out of the bathtub and ran to my beautiful roommate and forced her to let me read it to her. I don't know if she loved it as much as I did, but I had to read it to her. I had to read it to her because, and this is absolutely undebatable, we have wonderful friends. Friends who would forget their own plans and jump in with their most expensive clothes on to swim with us, to make sure we don't drown; friends who hug and love and are some of the more affectionate and loving people you'll ever meet; friends who let you come over just to get some encouragement and a hug; friends who you laugh with for literally hours and hours; friends who make you funnier, make you better; friends who forget their sleep schedule just to make sure you're okay; friends who get you even when you don't say anything; friends who pray instead of talk; friends who uplift and challenge us.

I don't know how many friends I've swam with...I'd like to think I've gotten wet a few times, but I know that my friends have swam with me countless times, and I think we've been doing a lot of swimming recently. Apparently the swimming is good for you...and it's really great to swim together.....together makes all the difference. Probably without even realizing it, these friends of mine have swam with me, and then they've dragged me out of the pool, given me a towel and a change of clothes and the encouragement and motivation to keep going.