Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Giving and Receiving

I have a friend--well, someone whom I hope to make a friend--who is making this endeavor difficult because every time I invite her kids over to play with my kids, or visit her, or call to see how she's doing, she drops off a thank-you note with cookies! How can I get her to see that I am trying to move into the level of friendship in which we do these things because we want to and not as a favor??? Don't thank me any more! Let's be friends!

On the other hand, I have someone else in my life who is very generous to us with time and resources but who requires so much constant acknowledgement and gratitude that sometimes the price is too high and we'd rather not receive anything from that source, rather than try to figure out what's expected in return. Total opposite of the first problem but the result is the same: impossible to move the relationship to the level of friendship!

Maybe I should get the two of THEM together . . .

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