No other statement could be truer than the title of this post, Friendship is essential to the soul.

Pictured are me and group of my true friends in life and I must say that I couldn't be prouder than this group. Although all of my friends are not pictured here, this is a strong representation of them. (Randell, sorry I pulled the camera out after you left. Well, the truth is I didn't want you to break it. LOL!)
We got together yesterday to celebrate frienship as we do from time to time. Nothing big, but we met a great bar downtown Chicago, Juniors. They had $1 beers and it was great.

Although I completely destroyed my workout for the week by drinking way too many beers and eating fried chicken strips, I was in the presence of some remarkable people. You may not think so by the pictures, but these guys are some of the best people you could ever meet in this world. I count myself as fortunate to be among them as a friend.

Why is friendships so important?
I often ponder this question and never really come up with a complete answer, but it seems to me that the need for friendship is an huge whole that resides in the hearts of men and women everywhere. True companionship and having people in your life that knows EVERYTHING about you and are still willing to hang around, be there for you when you need them, and to help you move. LOL! You can really tell how many friends you have when it is time to move, right?

Friends have a way of keep you grounded when you get too full of yourself. Friends are always the one to tell it to you like you need to hear it. And let me tell you, this group has no problem giving it to each other raw and uncut. Truth is the best medicine in the world and only a true friend can give that to you.

Friendship takes time

You cannot meet someone in a day, a week, or a month and truly call them a friend. It takes time to have the life experiences together that makes real friendship come together. Most in this group, I have known well over 10 years and we have some tremendous life experiences, common bonds, and aspirations that make us super tight.

This group of friends that I have assembled is great. We have been there for each others weddings, funerals, births, fights, job promotions, graduations, failures, accomplishments, buying first homes, everything! And it has been wonderful.

Althought there have been many times when we have fought one another, other people, our selfs, we have been there for each other. True friendship is not something to take lightly and the great thing is everyone in the group understands that and values friendship as much as I do. This is truely a rare thing and the older I get the more I realize how special it is. I don't plan on taking their friendship lightly and don't expect them to take mine lightly either.

Out of all the people in the world, I cannot think of a better group of guys to be friends with and again count myself as fortunate to be a friend with them.

Here's to all my real friends the world....including my wife, she is a great friend of mine.

I love you all!