More hours of light, more sunshine to warm the flowers blooming, the delicious weather,— Spring, is a wonderful season when everything comes to life again.

I have a lovely case of spring fever. It takes every ounce of strength I have to not just sit at my desk and stare out my window. I have a beautiful view of the mountains and the clear, blue sky… There is even grass outside my window. And if you live in Tucson, you know grass is a rare sight to see.

Spring is a time for blossoming new relationships, and nurturing old ones. Friends, like a tree, once planted are taken care of from the time the seed is planted into the ground. If nurtured correctly, this seed of friendship can blossom into a strong, sturdy relationship. This friendship can provide shade from the harshness of life, a nice place to lean, a quiet place to go with your thoughts. But it has to be protected from damage. If neglected, it may wilt or even worse, die.

I read a blog written by my gay friend recently that said he loves gardening and this year he is taking that idea even further. He is going to “plant” a friendship garden and watch it grow. Every Spring he buys seeds and flowers and tends to them delicately.

This year his garden is expanding to consist of making new friends and watch them grow into something beautiful. He is realistic and knows that with every seed packet, some will blossom and some won’t survive. The wondrous part is to see it all bloom right before your eyes. To see which relationships will grow into voluptuous buds and flowers and which will not survive for one reason or another.

As I read his blog, I thought we all need to do this. We all need to become our own gardeners. Let’s use this season to reconnect with friends. Make sure they are being taken care of. Sometimes we get so caught up in our own busy lives that we tend to neglect the very people that mean the most.
 
Let’s value our friendships by nurturing them on a regular basis. Let’s make it a point to meet friends regularly, find out about what is going on in their lives, send them texts telling them how much we appreciate them, share a laugh… let’s make our friendship bonds stronger!

On a side note. A crazy thing happened the other day. I was on myspace and got a message from someone I didn’t recognize at first. As I looked a little closer with curiosity, I realized that it was my best friend from High School.

This is someone I spent everyday with for at least 5 years. After high school we stayed in touch for awhile but we went to different colleges and other circumstances led us apart. I have thought about her all this time. Wondering where she was, where her life has led her. Needless to say, I am just tickled that we have found each other after all this time. This is an old friendship that I tend to nurture. The roots are there, it just needs time to bloom.