{"id":377,"date":"2023-03-20T19:54:05","date_gmt":"2023-03-21T00:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/?p=377"},"modified":"2023-03-21T12:05:45","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T17:05:45","slug":"cherish-and-honor-your-friendships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/20\/cherish-and-honor-your-friendships\/","title":{"rendered":"Cherish and Honor Your Friendships"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

According to the Mayo clinic<\/a>, friendships enrich our lives and improve our health. They increase our sense of belonging and purpose. Friendships can boost our happiness and reduce our stress. They not only improve our self-confidence and self-worth, but they also help us cope with traumas.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Pappadeux, Albuquerque 2016<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I have many circles of friends. However, my most treasured is with my \u201cSunday Sistas\u201d from the East Mountains of New Mexico who I\u2019ve known for over 12 years. What started out as a group of church ladies blossomed into enduring life friendships. We\u2019ve been together through three divorces, two weddings, cancer, a brain tumor, stroke, job losses, interstate moves, and the global pandemic. These women are true friends who stand by you through good times and hard times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve had countless get togethers, dinners out, movie nights, wine tastings, road trips, spa days, brunches, birthday celebrations, high tea outings, art gallery exhibitions, and New Year\u2019s Eve parties. While I\u2019ve listened and watched my fellow Sunday Sistas move on with their lives, and even get remarried, I\u2019ve always been reluctant to commit to a long-term relationship for fear of failing again. However, with encouragement and prayer from my girlfriends, I\u2019ve learned to trust myself again and to believe that there are good men of high value out there waiting to find the right woman to call \u201cthe one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dating 60+<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

About five months ago, I was introduced to a new gentleman through my neighbor. She told me, \u201cHe\u2019s a great catch Gale. Creative like you, about the same age, a kind and sweet family man. There\u2019s just one thing you need to know. He has low vision and he no longer drives.\u201d I was curious about him, so I took a chance and said \u201cYes\u201d when he asked me out for a coffee date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The physical attraction was immediate, but the emotional attraction took longer to settle in. As you might have guessed, by the time a person reaches their sixties, they have baggage, right? There are ex-spouses, former relationships, adult children, grandchildren, pets, houses, careers, pending retirement, and there are undoubtedly health issues. As a cancer survivor myself, I had pondered when the right time would be for me to share this information with a potential suitor. For the new man in my life, he pondered if he would ever find another woman who would accept him as a whole man with his limited vision. After we revealed our deepest insecurities to each other, we smiled and realized it was not a big deal after all. At our age, it isn’t about finding the perfect man, but, rather, the man who is right for us. We love each other\u2019s companionship and decided to commit to a long term exclusive relationship. Woo Hoo!<\/p>\n\n\n

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Jinja’s, Albuquerque 2023<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Over the past six decades, I\u2019ve made a lot of friends and I’ve lost some, too. Real friends are hard to come by. I’ve lived all over this country from California to Georgia to Oklahoma to Hawaii to Maryland to New Mexico. I’ve met many people through college, military life, marriage, single parenthood, corporate life, church, as an educator, and from everyday life.\u00a0Through it all, I\u2019ve learned the value that friendships bring to my life. Friends keep you balanced when the rest of your world feels like it’s spinning out of control. What I know now more than anything else, is to cherish and honor my friendships!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gale O’Brien<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Gale O\u2019Brien is a writer, artist, wine connoisseur, life coach, and the award-winning author of the book Transformation: Creating an Exceptional Life in the Face of Cancer<\/a><\/em><\/strong> available from Amazon.com. She\u2019s also the founder of the Passione Per L\u2019Arte blog. A former schoolteacher, Gale knows how to set an intention to live and pursue a passionate, exceptional life. She enjoys spending her free time with family, friends, and her dog. Gale lives in New Mexico where she is inspired by the people and the art culture of the Southwest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friends keep you balanced when the rest of your world feels like it’s spinning out of control. What I know now more than anything else, is to cherish and honor my friendships!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[88,9],"tags":[23,24,36],"class_list":["post-377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dating","category-girlfriends","tag-friends","tag-girlfriends","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":392,"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions\/392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}