Friendships aren't what they used to be...or maybe aren't what I thought they were?

     Since I was a kid, I always wanted to have that bond with someone. (other than my husband)  You know that weekend getaway with your best girlfriend to the beach while you're drinking Cosmopolitans, eating cheesecake, and gossiping about sex lives.   Well, once I got married (at 18), and stopped watching Lifetime on cable, I realized that sometimes that's not the life you were called for.  Let's see here....I've never had a cosmopolitan. I don't love cheesecake. My sex life....well....that's my business.
    I have been called to something greater. I have been called to bond with people that might only be in my life for a few years or maybe even just a few moments.  Whether it be in the dentist's office, the shampoo aisle at Walgreen's or my living room on a Monday evening...bonds are being made.  The words that come out of my mouth are words of love. Love for God. Love for life. Love for whomever I'm speaking to.  I realize that what I thought were bonds and friendships with people over the past few years were really not friendships at all.  As long as I followed 'the rules' of what they felt was 'the truth'...then it was all good. But as soon as I strayed too far from 'tradition', it could no longer be. Seriously? You're surprised that I'm not 'that traditional'?
     When someone has cut ties from me and Shane....and you are an adult....you have also cut ties from my children.  (I did the cutting).  This isn't done out of malice. This is done out of desire for a drama free, judgmental free, and bullshit free zone.  It doesn't mean that we don't love you. It means just what I said. Freedom.
   Now...I pulled this from a Jim Palmer's facebook page and it speaks to me in so many ways:

“The church desperately needs creative heretics. A “creative heretic,” an independent thinker, is an example of the “unbalanced” force to which Newton refers in his first law of motion. Only the person who breaks with tradition can change the direction of an institution. A heretic is not an enemy of God but one who is more interested in truth than in tradition.”

- John Sloat, A Handbook for Heretics

   I feel unbalanced. I feel creative. I feel independent.  However....I embrace the truth. I crave more truth. I will spread the truth. If this causes others to cut their ties with me, then that's OK. I will continue to form bonds with people...even if it's just for a moment at the bank.
    BTW.....I have a friend that I'm waiting to go to the beach with. We will drink cosmos (or beer), eat cheesecake (or potato chips), and talk about our sex lives (no matter how embarrassing it is). Right Julie?