The Dress

Originally uploaded by laundrylessons.

I didn’t buy this dress. My dear friend Bobbie gave me this dress for my birthday. Who gives someone a dress? Bobbie. My birthday was in May and while meeting at Starbucks for coffee Bobbie whips out a bag and says, “This is just fun.” From a cheapie store, the dress is a swishie, colorful, not-my-style garment. But she was right. It is fun.

All summer the dress sat in my closet. I never had a place to wear it, or it wasn’t my color or it’s kind of young, were all excuses I used when I looked at the dress. But then, last weekend, the end of summer, I put the dress on for an outdoor party. I was fun. It was perfect. I didn’t feel like me and it was the right thing for the night.

Bobbie’s dress pushed me beyond my comfort level. Dear friends do that. They love me for my facial hair and my disruptive kids and opinionated husband, but they also see my potential. They encourage me and tell me the truth to my face. My image is bigger in my friends’ eyes than when I look in my magnifying mirror.

I’m sad that I only wore the dress one time this summer. Now, as it hangs drying in my laundry room, I’m tempted to let it stay. What a delightful reminder of my friend. I mean really, who buys you a dress? Maybe a scarf or a sweater, but only a special person can buy a grown woman a dress and say, “This is just for fun.”

Maybe you have a friend who pushes you. She helps to transform you with her encouragement or her thoughtfulness. Maybe your friend is your sister or your mother. Some days my daughter finds my flaws, and she isn’t usually wrong, and I feel better for listening to her advice. Women need our friends – to pick us up, to cool us off, and to tell us to “Have some fun.”