But Galentine’s Day? That is a day that I can get behind. My female friends have always been an important part of my life. Now that I am entering middle age, I am finding they are more important than EVER. In the past five years, I have been practicing saying “No” in every aspect of life save one: Opportunities to spend time with and connect with my female friends. When a girlfriend calls and asks me to join her on an adventure or just talk for a while, the answer is almost always YES.

• Even if I have to adjust my kids’ schedules.
• Even if my husband has to cover for me more than he really wants to.
• Even if something else in my life gets shortchanged.

The Gals in my life are climbing up the priority ladder. Here are the top ten reasons why.  

10 Reasons I Need My Girlfriends More Than Ever

1. They make me laugh. And I am finding middle age is a time I desperately need to laugh.
2. They help me understand how to be a mom to a teenage daughter, which is a tricky and confusing endeavor.
3. They help me understand how to be a mom to a teenage son, which is way more tricky and confusing than I ever dreamt it would be.
4. They will be there for me in five years when I go from being a mainly stay-at-home mom to being an empty nest mom. Kids fly away. Girlfriends Stay.
5. Chin hair. Gravity. A 44-year-old bladder. They get it. Enough said.
6. They tell me stories of how they are dealing with their aging parents and I tell them mine. We try to see the legacies our parents will leave us beyond the grief.
7. They help me sort out what kind of legacy I am going to leave behind.
8. They advise me on what sort of jeans I should cover a middle-aged bum with, what kind of bra works best for middle-aged boobs, and what kind of swimsuit won’t scare small children away. Think less THE GAP and more NASA space-aged technology.
9. They might very well be the people I am playing cards with (who are we kidding, cheating at cards with) at the senior center after my husband has already passed on. We wish estrogen did not leave some of us on the earth years after our beloved husbands have passed, but alas it is so.
10. They make me a better person.

So to all my beloved Female Friends far and wide

HAPPY GALENTINE’S DAY!

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