That's what friends are for.....

How blessed am I to live in the Ozarks!  It isn't as if I never had friends when I lived in other parts of the country.  But true friendship takes on a whole new meaning when people you hardly know gather together and give you a hand when you need it.  Case in point is shown in the picture above.  This was our home-to-be in the Irish Wilderness just about 40 years ago this coming summer.  I was pregnant.  Andy was trying to get the house ready for us to move in the following summer.  And we had no roof.  But our Wilderness neighbors, without us even hinting that we needed help, arrived on the scene one fine Saturday morning and started to work.  The ladies brought dinner and the men brought their ladders and nails and know-how.  Before nightfall there was a fine roof on our house and we were well on our way to making a home to live in.   When I struggled to find words to thank these people for what they had done for us, this is what they said. That's what friends are for....
Over the years I have remembered that very first act of kindness that was given to us in that tight-knit community.  And here in Gainesville I can see the same spirit alive and well.  In a few weeks we will have the Relay for Life.  This past year has seen all sorts of fundraisers for sick babies and their parents, neighbors suffering from awful illnesses, families torn and battered by life-gone-wrong.  We are together here in the world.  For better or for worse.  And somehow we will make it work out.  Because that's what friends are for.