As you will see, smiling is prominent within our pages this month. This issue’s theme is friendship and dental health, for people and pets. On dental health, we have highlighted three of the best dentist in our area—naturally, they advertise in our magazine. I know each one personally, and encourage you to read the profiles on their practices. Hopefully, we’ve captured a bit about what makes each special.

Friendship as a subject though got me thinking about my friends and what they mean to me, and the value of a great relationship, which is what friendship really is. The questions began to roll through my mind. How do I define a good or great friend? What qualities do my friends have that I’m attracted to? Why is that friendship important? How valuable is it to keep that friend in my life? What would my world look like if that friendship broke down? How much attention do I pay to my friendships and relationships?

What about the friends who have drifted from my life? Should I rekindle the friendship? Is Facebook the same as talking? Is texting as personal as a friendship should be.

And finally, am I a good friend?

With all the walls we put up to keep people out, with the secrets that we sometimes keep locked up and never share, developing good friendships is not only healthy, it is healing. It seems to me that somewhere—in the soul, in my heart of hearts—there is a place for lifelong friendship. It is up to me to develop it, nurture it, protect it, be loyal to it.

As we always hear in the end it is about love, and the people we share life with and the relationships we have developed that have much more value than the things we have collected. Collect friends.

In peace, love and laughter,

Joe