It’s the second week of my Gratitude Giveaway! Enter and comment below to win an autographed copy of THE MARRIAGE PACT.

One of the favorite gifts I received for my birthday last month was a roll of toilet paper. No, it wasn’t a joke about getting old and never knowing when you might suddenly “have to go” (though I will say there have been moments of sitting in rush hour traffic when some sort of catheter system didn’t seem like a half-bad idea).

This, however, is a very special roll of toilet paper, from one of my oldest and weirdest friends, Nan. It’s also a love note. (And it came with a first edition copy of Love in the Ruins by Walker Percy, which is the best kind of love note).

In sixth or seventh grade, Nan and I started the silly tradition of writing long notes to one another on toilet paper. Sometimes we traded them back and forth, each adding a little until we reached the cardboard center. Other times they fell apart or got dropped in puddles before we made it to the end. Not the most practical form of communication. I remember being pretty devastated the year I cleaned out my old bedroom after college and had to throw the last fading roll away, along with countless other folded notes and mementos from middle and high school.

Fortunately for us, the friendship has endured, despite the fact that we haven’t lived in the same city since we were 17. It’s a pretty astonishing blessing to have people in your life who remember you when you were young and awkward and stupid, and still love you now that you’re old and awkward and more skilled at hiding your stupid. The people who have seen you at your worst and helped you to be your best (sort of like Marci and Suzanne).

I’m lucky to have more than one of these amazing friends – in fact, I am beyond fortunate to have several. They know who they are (and one of them has a birthday today herself – I love you, Kristal!). These are the friendships that go on and on, in the best way, with both surprises and reassuring sameness each time a year is unfurled. Jokes that start out as silly bond us together. They are passed back and forth so long, they become almost worn out. And then they are resurrected as the markers of longstanding love, of a mutual understanding that surpasses individual interactions or even years of distance.

To say I am grateful for my lifelong friends is a vast understatement. To express it fully would fill all the rolls in the bathroom cabinet and then some… Good thing I can always write more novels, and those will always be at least partly inspired by the incredible friendships in my life. Even when I chose my Hebrew name, I honored them: “Achava” means friendship, and to me it will always mean I am surrounded by love.

What lifelong friends are you grateful for this season? Do you have goofy inside jokes that have spanned years, like and Nan’s and my toilet paper? What makes a friendship last across time and distance?

Please comment on this blog and enter the giveaway below. Even better, tag a friend you’ve mentioned and ask her to comment too!

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MJ Pullen

M.J. Pullen is a distracted writer and the mom of two boys in Roswell, Georgia, where she is absolutely late for something important right now. Her books include quirky romantic comedies and playful women's fiction. She blogs erratically with writing advice, random observations, and reflections on raising very loud kids and dogs. Join her Distracted Readers newsletter list for updates, free content, giveaways and more.