the joy dare: day 4

• one old gift: the joy of reading. Although my evening was not quite what was planned, I did enjoy my evening. I was at Starbucks with a coffee in one hand and a book in the other. I've loved reading for as long as I can remember and tonight was no exception.
• one new gift: camaraderie (ca·ma·ra·de·rie/ˌkäm(ə)ˈrädərē/
  
  Noun: mutual trust and friendship among people who spend a lot of time together).
  Over the past year or so, I've gained a definite appreciation for one of my friends. We can laugh, talk, cry, yell, get angry or just sit in comfortable silence. We can pray with/for each other, embarrass each other and support each other. We share our joys, sorrows, struggles and burdens. I love the ease of our friendship. Tonight got busy and life got in the way, so coffee together didn't work out. But we were still able to share snippets of our day and our frustrations with each other and encourage each other to keep on going. Just as I was packing up my things, on heard a song on the radio and, although I didn't completely recognize it and there were no lyrics, it reminded me of the song "You've got a Friend in Me" from Toy Story (I'll add a video link at the bottom of this post) and that just made me appreciate our friendship on a new level.
• one blue gift: our pool. My folks have an indoor pool and I love it! I am trying to lose weight and have several 'swimming buddies' who come over at various points in the week to swim laps with me. Having access to a private, indoor pool all year long is definitely a gift.