We all have best friends or have had them in our life time.  They have always been there or they have not yet arrived on the scene.  They are a part of us; they are the missing part of us.  They are the essence of what we connect with, past, present and future.

Here are some of my best friends I wish to share with you, my new, and dearest friends, with whom, I share a part of myself, yet unrevealed to some of my long time best friends.  They would be amazed and maybe even pissed.  Oh well.  Here it is.

My best girl friend, Gwen, since our kids were in kindergarten together.  I just told her tonight that I write a blog on this site.  She was, like...what?!?

"You never told me!"  I am telling you now.

She is my girlie girl best friend!  (no tongue)

My first born daughter, Kelly. She is, by rights, my best friend, best effort, out of the shoot!  Terrible, you say!  I mean this in the most loving ways.  And first born is first in line for all the mistakes and torment a mother can make.  Or, a mother's first miracle.

My Michele, my belle.  My middle daughter, who has said since she was a little girl, that she will be the one who will take care of me in my old age.

Hello!  I'm here now!  How much older do I need to be?!?  What a wonderful, dear friend she is to me.

A Mother's Day photo with my babiest, Julie.  Geez, I look fat in this photo!  All that motherly love, oozing all down in that motherly belly!  What the heck, it is what it is!  The last one is the longest to loose the baby fat!  She is, I digress, a truly best friend and a child that touches my spirit in ways that only the baby can penetrate.  She has my heart, as all three of my daughters do, by the strings.

My bestest sistah friend and she knows it!  And her hunky husband!  My world would not be the same without this darling baby sister in my life, so prominently to this day.

And my other sisters, especially, Sheila, far left, who will kick my ass to the moon if I don't mention that she is the bestest sister and friend, so Mary doesn't let it go to her head!  You see my dilemma?!

The tear jerker of them all, is my first best friend, my father and a dear friend, mentor and disciplinarian, otherwise, I would have turned out to be a total wise ass.  Too late.

Sorry, Mom.  As much as I loved and appreciated you, you deferred to my dad and my siblings for the comfort and friendship that defined my closest ties in my life.  And yet, I loved you more than I can say.

My mom was so adored by my father and they were truly, best friends.  Hard act to follow.

Then, there is the new life and light that is the early and best freindship of all.  The friendship that is of the next generation, from which, the future lies...in our hopes and dreams.  Our grandchildren, that if lucky enough, blessed, touched our lives while we are here to recognize that life regenerates and energizes where we leave off.  He is my newest, bestest little friend of all.  In his eyes, I can do no wrong.  Yet!  He is my baby.  He holds the future where I will no longer dwell, someday.  He is the future in my eyes and in my heart.

And here is grandpa!  Yes!  I do have a best friend who shares my bed and puts up with me in all my moods, aspects and imitations of myself.  He is my buddy, my husband, my happily ever after, my, "for better or for worse."  Now doesn't that just scare the hell out of you!?!

I am just a royal pain in the ass, my friends.  I have so many "best friends," that I don't know how to narrow it down to just one.  That wouldn't be fair.  Nor would it be real.  They are all so much a part of who I define in the role that cannot be filled by just one.

 There you have it!  You are all so important to me, really.  I just wanted to share with you, the image of a best and lasting friendship, that I hold so dear to me and cannot limit myself to just one!