Thanksgiving? Or Friendsgiving?

Friendsgiving. 

That’s the title Jeff and Chuck give to the annual November dinner to which they invite all their best friends. 

I love that word and the idea it expresses...because friends give us so much.

For some, they become family, taking the place of parents who are gone or siblings who live far away or relatives with whom we have little in common.  

How important are friends? Researchers at Johns Hopkins say that someone who lacks a circle of friends is more at risk health-wise than someone who smokes 15 cigarettes a day. 

Sometimes, life gets so busy that friendship lands on a lower rung after work demands or, if we’re parents, our kids’ activities.  We may take longtime friends for granted, assuming they’ll be there when we need them, forgetting that  true friendship is never a one-way street. Every relationship in life needs nurturing.

Maybe you won’t host a Friendsgiving party as Jeff and Chuck do. But is this a good time to think about the friends who enrich your life and to ponder how you might give back to them?