Friendship – the Perfect Blendship for 2015
Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel
Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other’s gold.
That popular campfire song of old is just as relevant now as we start the New Year.
To make 2015 a better year, SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel would like to see us all reach out the hand of friendship to the people we encounter in our everyday lives.
Putting aside differences and disagreements, now is the time to focus on the things that unite us and to celebrate our shared hopes and dreams.
As writers who are out in the community, SurfWriter Girls are fortunate to meet new people practically everywhere we go…at beach cleanups, talking to small business owners, at civic events, and more.
Along the way, many have become our friends, like Ocean Friendly Gardens expert Greg Goran…
Surfrider Foundation volunteers Alex and Norma Sellers…
Up, Up & Away Kites owners Melissa and Jason Natanson…
International Surfing Museum workers Cindy Cross and Dave Reynolds. The list goes on.
Think of your own list and all the people with whom you come into contact. How many potential new friends are waiting there? How many old friends are hoping to reconnect? You might be surprised.
If you’d like to find out, it’s easy. Just make the effort. As the saying goes, “To have a friend, you have to be a friend.”
Motivational speaker and author Dale Carnegie, once said, “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”
While focusing on friends – both old and new – may not seem like such a big thing, President Woodrow Wilson felt differently. Recognizing the importance of friendship, he stated, “Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together.”
SurfWriter Girls Sunny and Patti definitely agree. Sunny and her friend Cynthia Mejia Giudici have been friends since first grade, staying connected through marriages, divorces, births, deaths, and distance.
Patti and her friends from Culver City High School – Lynn, Linda, Barbara and Mickey – still get together every year for their annual CCHS Girls Thanksgiving Lunch.
True friendship is like a velvety rose bud that, when nurtured, develops into a thing of beauty. With friends you can share special moments that you delight in, enjoying the small, but important things, that occur and the interesting places where life takes you.
In the words of noted theologian St. Thomas Aquinas, “Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious.”
So, if you want to make a positive difference in 2015 – in your own life and the lives of others – just open your heart and mind and reach out to someone, offering them the gift of friendship.
Now that all the holiday gifts have been unwrapped and put away, this is one more gift that can last a lifetime… turning from silver to gold.
Happy New Year!
Patti and Sunny
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