180px-The_YI climbed the ‘Y’ in Provo with my girlfriends on Thursday. We pounded out the 12% grade, checking our heart rate monitors (to make sure we weren’t dead… you know), we panted and huffed. We laughed and gabbed while we trekked up the hill as fast as we could. We’re trying, us middle aged mommas, to kick each other into better shape.

What we’re succeeding at doing is keeping each other sane.

I’ve been exercising with some of these women for years. We used to run together, but now that I can’t run anymore, they decided to also stop running so we could stick together. We’ve taken up climbing mountains. And biking.

“The important thing is that we do it together,” one of them said when they quit running in solidarity with me, “We’ll walk together.”

She brought me to tears that day, the day she gave up running because I had to give up running.

As we got toward the bottom of the mountain, almost back at the car, my legs were numb, my knees were threatening to buckle. I held on to one of my friends shoulders as I hobbled my way off the trail. I banged on my legs with my fist, trying to get the feeling back, and together we laughed about her pushing me up the mountain in a wheelchair.

I have M.S., and it has started to rob me of the long road of life that I thought lay ahead of me. It has detoured me in strange and unexpected ways. It has cost me a few relationships and has laid claim to what I thought were essential parts of my identity.

But I have been dearly repaid for those losses by my girlfriends.

The Hebrew word for friend is (roughly) ra’ar. The word shares it’s roots intimately with the word Shepherd. The Savior speaks of His friends often in the scriptures. He begins dozens of sentences in the New Testament with, “Friend, …”

And then the Savior transitions into Shepherd. He uses these words to describe the same things. He uses the language of friend to complement the language of shepherd.

My girlfriends are watching over me. I hope I’m watching over them. The Savior, that “Great Shepherd of the Sheep”, is my friend and a beautiful example of friendship. He sent me shepherds to guard over my tender soul and keep it safe from the ravening wolves.

So we hobbled to the car together. We talked about climbing it again. We talked about climbing as long and as often as we can.

We didn’t talk about running.

And then we ate cookies.

I love my girls.

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