Grati-Tuesday: Campfire Friends

Gratitude + Tuesday = Grati-Tuesday.  This is not my genius phrase, but, as one of my friends from Argentina would say, "I'm going to take it and make it mine."

A campfire AND mountains?  Perfection.

I am going to make an effort to pick something I'm grateful for every Tuesday (ok, maybe not EVERY Tuesday, but I'll try) and write a little bit about it. 

This week, I am grateful for my "campfire friends." I recently heard someone describe "campfire friends" as the people you talk to when you're hurt, rejected and/or (because let's be honest... often, it's all three) embarrassed.  They're your 2 am friends.  And most people are lucky if they have one.  I have more than one, which makes me especially grateful this Tuesday... 

I was recently reminded how incredible and supportive my campfire friends are, and I am so grateful for their presence in my life.  They know my heart (where others think I don't even have one), and it always amazes me when they show up before I even know I needed them. Their ability to put aside their own crises, emotions, insecurities, life frustrations, etc. and be there for me and take on mine for a bit is something I am incredibly grateful for.  Too often people (especially women, for some reason) play the "yeah, you think YOUR life is bad, wait till you hear about MY life" game. Instead of supporting each other, we spend a night one-upping each other's problems and starting sentences with, "oh you think THAT'S bad???"  Don't get me wrong, sometimes a night of having others tell you (me) their problems are worse than yours (mine) can make you (me) feel better... but it's only temporary.  For me, whatever satisfaction is gained from learning how much "worse" someone else has it just leaves me feeling guilty for feeling miserable/angry/frustrated/sad/etc in the first place. 

My campfire friends (is it overly cheesy yet?) are the ones who talk through why I feel the way I feel and what I should do about it.  I don't know what I would do without them in my life, much less what I would have done without them these last couple weeks, so it seems fitting for them to be the first in my Grati-Tuesday series.

I'll bring the marshmallows... it's the least I can do.