That's What Friends Are For!

Spring has been springing out all over! One of my favorite things about the season is all of the young creatures that springtime brings. In the past week or two, I've begun seeing the spring lambs at the University farms. The field where they hang out is along Park Avenue, a road I travel quite a few times in a typical week. So I get to see them several days a week, but not usually up close and personal.

It rained in the morning but became sunny in the afternoon, and out came the lambs. I managed a quick stop by the farm to check them out, and I hope to go back soon and get an even closer look! I parked my car along the fence and was standing there with my camera balanced on a fence pole, snapping away.

I noticed that there seemed to be just one white lamb among the bunch. The rest were a darker color. Not really full-on black, exactly; but dark. The little white lamb was down, and the darker lambs kept checking on it as though they were worried about it.

One darker lamb in particular just wouldn't give up. It walked away, then came back. It came back again and brought friends. Then it lay down on the ground beside the white lamb and showed it how to get up. Even that didn't work.

And finally the friend brought a whole bunch of the dark lambs and surrounded the white one and did (what I presumed to be - take a look for yourself - you can see the picture) a laying on of lamb lips. A second or two later, the white lamb clambered to its feet. It strolled away with the dark friend: ebony and ivory, side by side. Hooray! Mission white lamb rising: successful!

I couldn't help myself: I took encouragement from the little scene. I thought about how important friends are. They share the good times and the bad. They won't give up on you. The really great friends may even lie down in the dirt beside you, if that is where you must be, and show you how to rise, when you've forgotten how yourself.

The song to accompany this photo of a lovely group of lamby friends is Dionne Warwick with Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder and Elton John, with That's What Friends Are For.

P.S. Delightful but totally unrelated: I enjoyed a tasty lunch with a dear friend on this day. We went to Luna 2 by the Nittany Mall, and I ordered a small house salad with champagne vinaigrette dressing and a bowl of seafood chowder. Both were OUTSTANDING. (As was the company!) :-) It was one of the best meals out I've had lately! You may see the soup and salad in the extras.