More reverbs. All this seasonal reflection is making me, well, reflective, and in conjunction with doing more yoga, I’m starting to feel all centered and shit. Weird. Although just for the record, the reason I’m doing more yoga is that A) this studio is 6 minutes walk from my apartment; and B) the studio has a lot of hour-long classes, which make it easy to fit a class into my day.  Fairly Type A logic: yoga as efficient fitness practice.

But anyway. I was almost caught up with my reverbs and then…I got behind again. I think today is the 19th but I’m not entirely sure – there was a three-person 10 year old slumber party last night and, as a result, very little slumber for anyone, so all the particulars are a little hazy. Slumber party is a real misnomer, isn’t it? I mean, it should be go-apeshit-all-night-long party, actually. As if they’re all practicing for frat parties or something equally awful.

The prompt: Friendship. How has a friend changed you or your perspective on the world this year? Was this change gradual, or a sudden burst?

I don’t think one friend has had a whammy of an impact. Instead it’s been a kind of slow accrual, learning (or hoping to learn) from the good qualities each of my friends offers–to me, to their families, to the world. C’s zen, K’s optimism, J’s generosity, S’s self-reflection, H’s perseverance, A’s loyalty–and don’t even get me started on what I learn from my mom…A pretty marvelous group. all told.

Learning from these women (with the exception of my mother and my sister, who I’ve been learning from all my life), is a gradual thing. This past spring, though, in those few weeks where it looked like we might really pick up and move to flyover country, there was a burst–a veritable flash–when I realized what a wrench it would be to leave my little network of Big City friends.We’re not quite a “Sex in the City” crew  – we’re, ahem, a tad too old, and if any of us wears heels more than 2″ high, there’s hell to pay with backaches the next day.

Has anything changed, dramatically, as a result of having these friends? Well, no, probably  not, other than my continued awareness that having this group of friends is pretty high on my short list of “really good stuff in my life.”