Great dinner with friends

It is funny (not really) how great friends can lift you up, can make you feel as if everything is possible, and ultimately make you feel that no matter where you go, how long you will be away, that once you come back, they will be right there. Well, I had a great dinner/ BBQ with four of those friends tonight. As I listen to their stories, participated in some, and silently marveled at their humanity and good-spiritness (no such word), I was in awed at the fact that soon, while I am in Uganda, despite all the distance, I will still be their friends. I may make it into their lores as they tell stories about people they know, so in effect, despite the distance from Uganda to CT, they will always be my friends. And that warmth me. That knowledge sustains me as I know that in this new life of mine (trying to be an international aid worker), where ever I end up, I will always have these friends with me, either in spirit or in memory. That fact is a powerful knowledge as I no longer feel lonely where ever I end up. Because I know that whenever I am at my loneliest moments, I have my Mother, my friends, and my dog. And when I do return, I know that these friends will ask me about my trip, and after 30mins, they will be back to the regular schedule, acting as if I never left. And that strengthens me.
I have always been the clingy type. However, there were years where life experience made me jaded and I started to lose friends because I had that attitude of "screw them all, they are never there for me". However, through the years, I have learnt that those people were not truly my friends. Now that I have found my center, I am content in knowing that the friends I have (mostly from highschool), are good people. They are those that speak their minds, those that are straightforward in the way of "what you see is what you get, and I don't care", and those that I know will always be my friends.
And so as I sit there while they ate the porkchops I made, I was truly blessed in having them there. The memories of this BBQ/dinner will stay with me as I am grateful that they had shown up and that they remained who they are, the truly good friends.