T-Rex...are you talking about pals?

So...friends.  They're kind of awesome.  And by kind of I mean totally and completely.

But really.  Think about it.

You have your family, right?  People who are sort of genetically predisposed to care about you.  You may get along with them, you may not, but they're family.  Most of the time they're always sort of in your corner. It's basically their job.

Then there's significant others.  T-Rex is right, of course, that significant others are just special friends who you get to kiss and tell secrets to.  But really, that's the thing.  With a significant other there's a whole bunch of different levels to that relationship.  There are things you expect them to give you and they expect you to give them.  And if you don't get and give those things then you or them might decide you're not so significant to each other after all.  Or maybe you give and get just the right things and you decide you're the most significant other ever.  Then you become married and that's its own thing altogether.

But then there's friends.  Friends are not your family; they are not people who kind of just have to love you because of your shared genetics.  And they're not your significant others so they don't get the benefits that go with that relationship either.

Friends, or "pals" as T-Rex likes to call them, are the completely random people who you come across in life that have absolutely no connection to you, but you love them and they love you back.  For no reason really, besides the fact that they just like you.

That's what fascinates me about friendship.  It is a relationship that really and truly is built on nothing more than the merit of its participants.  You don't have what T-Rex might call "sexy times" to reinforce your relationship.  You don't have some sort of rigid connection holding you with this person--no "I have to forgive him because he's my brother/uncle/cousin/whatever."  All you have is the fact that, for whatever reason, you really really care about that person.  And it is surprising to me how many people there are for whom that is quite enough for both of us.

I have so many awesome friends.  Sometimes I am overswept with an awareness of just how many absolutely wonderful people there are in my life.  People who, not only do I care about immensely, but who I know also care about me.  I don't think there is any way I could express how much that knowledge means to me.  Suffice it to say, when I think of my friends I feel so much gratitude to them, so much love, and so much happiness that I've been so lucky as to meet them.  And I'm always a little bit surprised that such awesome people enjoy hanging out with me. :)

and so many more...