Friends

Did you know the entire Friends sitcom will soon be available on netflix?  I suppose it was only a matter of time, but still I am somewhat surprised that people still want to spend time with Rachel, Monica, and the rest of our friends.  It seems so dated, but I gave up trying to understand pop culture a long time ago (back when parachute pants became popular).  And for those of you who do not know me, I am definitely not hip or trendy.  At least someone was brilliant enough to start the mismatched sock trend.  That is one fashion trend I can embrace fully for years and years!  For more on my views on the mysterious disappearance of socks visit my 2011 M-live story found here Lost Sock Theories.

I tend to feel about people much like Glennon Doyle Melton does and that is to say that I believe that we are all brothers and sisters.  Everyone is connected. Family even.  And so I love everyone.  I trust people to do the right thing.  I realize this makes me vulnerable to being taken advantage of and occasionally this has happened.  Sometimes believing that everyone is nice has bit me square in the a**.  However, most of the time it serves me well.  Generally speaking believing the very best in people is a fantastic way to live!  It is just who I am. No apologies or explanation needed.

We will get back to the friends topic in a moment, but first I forgot to tell you something really super important.  I forgot to tell you that I am not just all about junk food dinners and leftover frozen pizza; oh no, I am a much deeper person than that!  I actually recently did a health food day too!  That's right, for an entire day, I focused on all things healthy for my family. For 24 consecutive hours, we ate only foods that we had a hand in growing (we got a little help from our various relative's gardens too and the neighboring farm market). But, It was TOTALLY  AWESOME!!! 

 Fresh squash compliments of my sister's garden.

 Watermelon from the neighboring Mellema Farms!

 Fresh potatoes also from Mellema Farms.  That place is seriously ahhhmazing.

 Where did this impostor picture come from?...this is neither fresh, nor healthy.... not sure about this, but I shall investigate the matter thoroughly...rest assured. I will find out who was eating cookings and drinking coffee on our healthy day...This act will not go unpunished. 

It is also noteworthy that during healthy day we also ate eggs from our chickens, jam from my sister's stash of preserves, canned apple sauce and venison which was provided by my super sexy, hunter husband, Jeff!  On a somewhat related note, I plan to purchase a cheap pair of fake antlers to wear with my best lingerie in hopes of getting my husband's attention since we are well into the hunting season and I can't seem to catch his eye these days.  I will let you know how that works out for me... Hopefully I won't get shot!

My boys trying to wake up this morning which has nothing to do with my blog, but I just love that Stan and AJ are such close buds that they now sleep together amidst the mess that is the reality of AJ's room. Snug as a couple bugs in a rug (or in a messy 6-year old boy's room, but whatever)

Now back to the topic of friends. My strongly held belief in humanity and people in general recently cost me a close friendship. I won't lie, this situation made me question my stance on the matter. It was deeply upsetting to me and I have been wrestling with this the past few weeks. Thinking on it a lot. Ruminating the idea that maybe I was wrong. But you know what? After all this time stewing on this, do you know where I have ended up on the matter of humanity? Right back where I frickin' started!

That's right No matter how I slice it, puree it, or cook it up, I just give people the benefit of the doubt. I just feel that everyone is fighting their own battle everyday. Everyone is struggling at this thing called life and so I offer people grace on a regular basis. And no I am not perfect at this, but I do pretty well and I am constantly working on it. My default is optimism. I don't get road rage when people do dumb things while driving near me. Instead, I assume they are having a bad day or were preoccupied, not that they were out trying to ruin my perfectly good day. And I drive on happily. I do this benefit of the doubt thing with people consistently, probably to a fault, but I think the alternative is a lonely, awful, selfish way to live.

Without getting into all the details, I explained all of this to my dear friend and I apologized for inadvertently causing her anxiety and stress. Well long story short, she disagrees about people and believes I am naive. As such, she decided that we could not be friends anymore. It saddens me deeply and I hope that someday she will be able to see the world the way that I do. POSITIVELY. I see miracles in the simple everyday things (AJ and Stan snuggling amidst a mess of laundry and blankets (MIRACLE) or my girls sitting in awe as they watch the ballet perform their Halloween show at the library tonight (MIRACLE). I have other friends going through the very lengthy process to adopt children from Haiti because they feel driven to do so (MIRACLE PEOPLE)! I look at people often and am amazed by the generosity of others and the spark that makes each person unique. In these moments, I realize that if there really is a God out there (which I am starting to believe strongly that there is) then he is even more amazing than I ever imagined.

A,B,C (D) Breakfast You figure it out it's a riddle of sorts!

Close up a,b,c,d breakfast mug shot! In case you needed help figuring it out!

So I leave you with these words that are somewhat of a family mantra,  LOVE ONE ANOTHER!

Vern Out

key to ABCD Breakfast riddle A=apple, B=bagel, C=carrot, D=donut