For the majority of my young life, I’ve lived in close proximity to my friends.

As an adult, I’ve never had friends come to stay with us overnight. We never really had the opportunity because we all lived so close to one another. I couldn’t envision myself asking friends that lived three doors down to grab a sleeping bag and stay with us for the weekend. It just wouldn’t have felt right.

But a year ago, we moved 6,000 kilometres away from everyone we knew, so it stands to reason that we would get the opportunity to play host to friends from afar one day.

I’m inspired to write about this now because a couple of weeks ago some good friends from British Columbia stayed with us for a couple of nights. Their visit reminded me of how important it is to surround yourself with people that make you happy and make you feel good.

These friends of which I speak are kind, creative, like-minded folk. Here they are.

Our friends

They let us babble on about our apple trees and stacks of firewood. They allowed us to direct their attention to our subtle home-improvements, and they oohed and aahed at just the right moments. And while they were here they taught us about farming, about igneous rocks, and about life in general. (And not once did they seem disturbed by the hordes of dust-bunnies and the alarming number of discarded nails and old rubber gloves that littered our stairs. Oh! And they brought us cookies!)

Sitting around discussing life with our friends made me feel very excited about life. Their verve and zest just made me that much more inspired. I hope we made them feel that way, too.

How do your friends make you feel?

I hope that when you wave your friends goodbye you’re sad to see them go and you miss how they made you feel.

Friends should build us up rather than bring us down. Friends are friends because they see the best in you, and you see the best in them.