Friend /frend/ (n): a priceless companion

Brian and Merrill

Nothing says friendship quite like a couple of guys paddling side by side in awkward stance through the ocean.
 
We rented paddle boards one evening when some of our very best friends flew across the country for a visit.  The guys were surprised at how difficult the boards were to control.  They think the waves might have had something to do with it, but whatever the reason, they spent a lot of time in the water instead of on the water.

Which left me rolling with laughter silently supporting them on the beach. As I watched them fall and fall and fall and climb back up and fall again, I thought about how much I love these people.  And about how friendships, just like paddle boards, can be so precarious.  Sometimes one wave of misunderstanding will be all it takes to break the friendship. It throws you off of your board and sends you crying back to the shore.

And other times the friendship withstands the whole ocean.  This is interesting to me because the waves come, regardless.  Little misunderstandings.  Big misunderstandings.  Offenses and hurt feelings slide under your feet and mess with your balance until, try as you might, you find yourself splashing and submerged in the very wave that threw you. 

And, I think, here is where the difference comes.
In this choice of giving up or getting up.  And then getting back up, again and again and again.

And again.
Down in the waves it feels like your friendship is being beaten... and it might be.  Though, really, it's through that beating that strength is formed.
And then if you stick it out through the storms together, how much more rewarding it will be when the seas calm and you look over to see a (stronger) friend smiling beside you.

Thanks for getting back up on your boards when my waves knock you down, friends.

You're the best.