How Cool Is This?

"Friends half our suffering and double our joy." - Cicero

At what point in your life have you felt like your friendships couldn't possibly get any richer? I've been feeling that way for a while. It's possible I'm not remembering some earlier period in my life when friends filled me up as much as my current group does. But not remembering an earlier time doesn't matter much, considering how fortunate I feel this moment. 

Here's just the most recent example why I'm feeling this way. At a meeting of my book club of two (How cool is this, having a friend that you meet with monthly to discuss a book? We're in our tenth year, BTW), that friend mentions a NY Times essay by David Brooks that she knows I would enjoy. Before the day is out, she sends me the link for the essay. I get busy and don't read it that day.

The next day - before opening the link - a different friend invites me to see a show in NYC (How cool is this, having a friend who invites you to see live music? Saw Graham Nash with her not long ago, BTW), and we begin making a plan. Before hanging up, she mentions an essay she knows I would enjoy and also recalls I don't get the NY Times delivered anymore. You've already guessed who wrote that essay, right? Both friends were right. It was amazing.

How cool is this, having a group of friends who have taken the time to know me well enough that they continually nourish me and, in the process, help elevate me as a thinker? 

p.s. The Brooks essay is entitled When Novels Mattered. Didn't provide a link because when I've tried including NY Times stuff in the past via my blog it hasn't always worked well. Won't be hard to track down if you're interested.