Back to School... With a Little Kindness From My Friends

"What a circus act we women perform every day of our lives."
― Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift From the Sea

If you drive anywhere where school is back in session, you know how crazy the first week is -- and that is just on the driving end.  Negotiating the first week of school is always a challenge, but oh how much easier with a little kindness from our friends.

I have a friend who is kind in very simple and yet highly effective and helpful ways.  Just this past weekend, as we ran around trying to find a specific school-required shoe style, she texted me places where I might try.  Thanks to her, I tried a smaller store that would not have occurred to me and found what we needed.  As I drove to the mall, my friend called the store to find where in the large mall it was located and also texted me to tell me that they had a BOGO 1/2 deal going (Buy One, Get the Other at 1/2 price).  Earlier in the summer, this same friend suggested a store that I would normally not go to for an item I needed and then called to find out until what time it was open.  On Saturday night, as I sat in the shoe store exhausted from running around, I thought how very blessed I was to have such a kind friend who has for years made my life a whole lot easier.

Today, as I was leaving school with one child, I received a call from another child that I had not completed yet one more school form that had to be submitted on line.  For whatever reason (perhaps because I am form averse), I panicked and ran into the office of a friend who works at the school.  Don't worry, she said, and she proceeded to find the form and help me fill it out.  Her kindness helped me breathe a sigh of relief.

Women, and men, too, do indeed perform all kinds of juggling as we try to keep the various parts of our lives moving in the direction they need to go.  There are times -- like the first week of school -- when it seems impossible without the kindness of our friends.