It doesn't take long at all for a baby to lay claim to their favorite blanket, a seeming appendage that absolutely must remain within their sight and reach for the next few years. Since they are too young, even at five, to explain what it is their baby blanket provides them, we have to assume it brings an overall feeling of security - as if all is well within their little world.

Once children start pre-school, the tendency to have their blankie in tow begins to subside. By that time, some children will have abandoned theirs (even though they probably know right where it is at any given time), except at bedtime. It's interesting to note that they stop feeling "lost" without the blanket right about the same time they start school and really get out into the larger picture - a bigger world for them - where there are many other little people just like them - out on their own. No baby blanket, no parents.

This is when children really start to learn about socializing and socially acceptable conduct. It is also the time they begin to sprout relationships with other children. Few, and far between, will form a friendship with another that lasts throughout their lifetime. It does happen though, and it would seem those two children who become adults would come to know each other very well, and even more so as the years passed. They might also form a childhood friendship that doesn't continue because of moves out of the neighborhood or school district, but is re-kindled at some later point in time - often by complete happenstance.

Friends come and go, or they might stay in your life for the duration; and there are always at least a couple of friends that you wish would stay with you, but they cannot. Their time has come to make passage to the next lifetime. When we lose our friends, to say "it is never easy" just wouldn't do justice to the experience. The loss is often described as feeling like a part of you has left, which goes to show just how important friends are in our lives.

So then, couldn't it be said that our friends are like baby blankets for grownups? They travel alongside us, down the paths and up the mountains of our trials, joys, tribulations and accomplishments. So seemingly significant are friends that, over the last couple of decades, explosively popular television shows like "Friends", internet sites such as "Facebook.com" & "Classmates.com", and Broadway hits like the Pulitzer Prize and Tony award winning "Rent" are likely forever etched into our memory bank.

The tremendous hit, "Friends", premiered on national television in 1994 and ran until 2004, when the series finale aired. The final episode was watched by more than 52 million American viewers, making it the most-watched series finale in the history of television.

Facebook.com, with an Alexa rating of "2" (being beaten out of first place by the internet giant, Google.com), has taken the web by storm. We can locate friends and relatives, even if we haven't heard from or seen them in fifty years...or more! Additionally, we are able to engage in "catch up" and stay informed of each others' lives via cyberspace, and in real time.

The popularity of Classmates.com is growing and, like Facebook.com, it produces a linked-chain effect. For every person you find (or that finds you), there will be another, and then another, who surfaces. We have the added benefit of not having to be "friends" with someone if we so choose. But all in all, we participate in these opportunities to connect with our past and the comfort it provides us - or that which we perceive it to.

Another barometer of the "Friend Trend" is the endless receipt of emails about friendship, so much so that "National Friendship Week" occurs many times a year on the internet! The email message that accompanies this celebration of friends over the web can be worded and visually depicted in creatively different ways, but the essence of the message remains the same....the sender thinks of you as their friend.

Not long ago, the acronym "BFF" was born and has since caught on like wildfire. It is especially in vogue with the younger members of the population....tweens and teens. Amusingly, though, they are not yet mature enough to understand the true meaning of either a "best friend" OR "forever". Only time will tell them which of their friends really will be their "BFF".

Friends come in all shapes, sizes, ages and walks of life. They can be just like you in their thinking, or they might be so different than you it's difficult to understand why you remain friends. It's a fact that your family, you get; but your friends, you get to choose. Our friends keep us grounded, tell us what we need to hear, share in our sorrows and joys -- comforting us just like our baby blanket did - all those years ago.

My new BFF is my brand new, darling granddaughter, and she will indeed be my best friend forever. A baby is the quintessential friend...not yet aware of stuff like judging others, being consumed with misguided pursuits, having no concept whatsoever of social stature or financial status, all they know about is love. She has unknowingly become my very own baby blanket!