Accidents and Friendships

Our friendship are accidents.  We meet people and form friendships by happy accident.  No one says , "Hey, let me analyze the school yard/classroom/parents' play group/lunchroom to decide who to be friends with.  It is usually "You like Strawberry Shortcake/country music/Dr. Sears method of sleep training/The Yankees too?"  We don't plan our friends -they just happen.  And so do real accidents.
We had an accident this weekend (not our fault, by the way).  No one was hurt - yeah - but it got me thinking about friends.  We live 6 hours away from family so the joys of having someone you can call on in a pinch doesn't happen.  Or it wouldn't if it weren't for friends.  I was able to call a friend and he came and picked us up.  Do you know how nice it is to have that?  You expect it (or should be able to expect it) from family.  After all, they are obligated to do things like that.  Friends aren't.
When the cop asked if there was someone we could call to come and pick us up, I started the list in my head.  I am a list person.  I am also a box person - I organize things into compartments.  So in my head, I started to make a list of people who 1.  I could call and 2. had a vehicle big enough to put 2 adults and 2 car seats in.  I only had to make one call; the others on the list were only if that person didn't pick up for some reason.  But the fact is, I had a LIST.  Several people that I could call that I knew would come and get us simply because they would.  I hope that they know I would do the same for them.
I am grateful for my friends.

(and would you believe this is 5,000.00 worth of damage?  I am glad we aren't paying for it! )