Today I visited with a dear friend who I do not visit nearly often enough.  The visit was filled with the ordinary — knitting, health, children, dreams, frustrations.  Whenever we visit I remember that we need to do it more often.

Then I came home to have a repairman fix a three-way switch in some ceiling lights that had gone bad.   He did his work competently and quickly and was gone in under an hour and all the lights worked.

Those two events today got me to thinking about the teams we need in our lives.  I have been working on building two separate teams (though I did not recognize that until today).  I have been working to increase my network of friends and I have been building the team to take over Bob’s job of home maintenance.

First the friend team.  I want friends for different things.  Some to go to concerts with, some to talk with, some to cry with, some to share recipes with, some to tell the latest success to, some to just hang out with.  My circle of friends is small and I want to enlarge it and I am finding that hard.  I have tried several activities to find new friends.  Some have not worked and some have sort of worked, but none have given me exactly what I am looking for.  My best friends have been found through pure serendipity.  I find it hard to make serendipity happen on demand!

The home maintenance team had a head start.  Before Bob died we had someone build a deck and a fence.  We both liked the fellow’s work, so I had one person who had Bob’s seal of approval.  That has been a godsend.  He was my first team member after Bob died.  I have used him often for little things and bigger things.  Today an electrician was added.  I also have a plumber and am looking for someone a little less pricey.   My home maintenance team seems to be growing nicely.

In building the home maintenance team I have depended on two things — word of mouth and Angie’s List.  Both are really helpful tools.  They both work sort of the same way.  You put the word out that you need a certain skill set and you either find it on Angie’s list or someone in the know gives you someone’s name.  This has been great.

Creating a team of friends has been much more daunting.  Getting recommendations from current friends is not something I have tried and actually sounds a bit weird.  And an Angie’s list for friends sounds strange, except for dating.  And dating isn’t what I am looking for. The friend building team is still learning.

As with everything else for the past year and a half, the right things seem to have appeared at the right time.  I think I will just continue to hope for that.  That is my non-plan plan.  I wonder if it will be affected by my new realization that I am in a team-building phase.  Intention seems to be pretty powerful.  Interesting thought.