This one is for the mom friends who show up --

with fans when your air conditioning kicks the bucket;

with a portable AC unit when it's still not fixed a week later.

This one is for the mom friends who show up --

to watch your kids so you can make it to an interview;

to meet the ac repairman who can only come, of course, while you're gone for it.

This one is for the mom friends who show up --

with their kids to entertain yours or on their own to entertain you.

This one is for the mom friends who show up and share their snacks and their wisdom and who show up to your messy, chaotic kid-packed home sans judgment, and who'll sit with you on the dog-hair donning floor as you crack jokes about what a shotty homemaker and housekeeper you are.

This one is for my mom friend --

who continues to show up;

who has shown up for me all pandemic-long in ways I cannot even express.

This one is for the mom friends who show up.

May you be one.

May you have at least one.

May you forever hold sacred how freakin' fantastic a friendship with one is.