Desiree Montanez

Hola Amigas,

AmigaDesiree wrote this on her Facebook page.  She sent it to her friends (Amigas).  I asked her if I could share it with you because it embodies how I feel.  Enjoy the read.  It's a good one.

Gracias AmigaDesiree for allowing me to share your beauty.


By Desiree Montanez

I was watching My Family recipe rocks on the Live Well channel the other day where Joey Fatone travels to Las Vegas to meet with a group of women who call themselves the Women Who Wine. They gather every week for good food, laughter, dancing and, of course, wine.

The Women Who Wine are like sisters who share in each other's joy and pain. They are always there to support each other no matter what and when they get together. The group line dances, paints wine glasses and creates great recipes that always include wine.

After watching the show I began to think how grateful I am for those women who I have surrounded myself with for over the last twenty some odd years or less (some much less but never the less) who have always been there for me and I wanted them all to know how special they are to me! Some I no longer see often nor talk to often but still hold a special place in my heart. ,

So let me start out with my usual “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood” and we should all be grateful and thankful to the Lord that we are alive and able to just be who we want to be or at least close to it.… But in giving thanks to the Lord we must also give thanks to those around us who have helped develop and shape our character. Those who have been by our sides through thick and thin, those who have seen us at our best and our worst, those that no matter what under any circumstance let us know that we are important, that we are loved and that we matter! Those that in the end feel more like Sisters or as we call them Sisterfriends!

Those who just stand by us and are relentless in their quest to make us see we are better than what we think we are (when we don’t see it ourselves), those that see the true value in friendship, those that make us see we are worth the battle, those that pull us by our bootstraps and tell us to get it together before we lose all our friends because we are just being reckless, those that by any means necessary will help get us through the good and the bad!!! With that being said I want to dedicate these words to those women in my life who have done just this for me so many times over! Sistersfriends here’s to you!

Why do I have a variety of friends who are all so different in character? How can I get along with them all? I think that each one helps to bring out a "different" part of me.

With one of them I am polite, I joke with another friend, I sit down and talk about serious matters with one, with another I laugh a lot, I may have a drink or two with one or all of them, I listen to one friend's problems, then I listen to another one's advice for me.

My friends are all like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. When completed, they form a treasure box. A treasure of friends!

They are my friends who understand me better than myself, who support me through good days and bad days. We all pray together when needed and for each other just because.

Real Age doctors tell us that friends are good for our health. Dr. Oz calls them Vitamin F (for Friends) and counts the benefits of friends as essential to our well being. Research shows that people in strong social circles have less risk of depression and terminal strokes.

If you enjoy Vitamin F constantly you can be up to 30 years younger than your real age. The warmth of friendship stops stress and even in your most intense moments it decreases the chance of a cardiac arrest or stroke by 50%. I'm so happy that I have a stock of Vitamin F!

In summary, we should value our friends and keep in touch with them. We should try to see the funny side of things and laugh together, and pray for each other in the tough moments.

Thank you for being one of my Vitamins!

Thank you for all the conversations that have helped shape my life into what it is today, I salute each and everyone of you! Smooches, Blessings and Abundance!