Viral post shows everyone can use #onthewayfriends now and then

"We could do a lot more showing up for one another."

October 22, 2019, 11:35 AM

Adult friendship can be complicated: life is busy, and too often we try to pretend everything is OK when it isn't.

Maybe what everyone needs is an #onthewayfriend.

A viral Facebook post about "on the way" friends has been shared almost 100,000 times. The author, Kimberly Adams, is the owner of the Northern Colorado Moms Blog Facebook page where the post originated.

"The rough season I alluded to in the post includes my being a newly single-mom who is going through divorce," Adams told "Good Morning America." "I certainly didn't sign up to be a part-time mom, so the days I don't have my son are really difficult for me. This was one of those days. I shared that fact with some of my closest friends, and my phone rang almost instantly. The post itself was born out of the love I felt from the way my friends showed up for me, and not just on that day, but the way they have shown up for me over and over again in this difficult season."

The feedback on the post, has been "a really beautiful thing to witness," she said. Women are tagging friends thanking them for being an "on the way" friend. Others are commenting with their sadness for not being able to identify those people in their lives. But, Adams said, strangers are responding to those commentors offering to be a friend to them.

"As moms, we live in a world that is saturated with the 'you can do hard things' message, and we've somehow decided this means that we have to, or should be able to do them all on our own," Adams said. "The act of just showing up is really all that we need. Whether a text checking-in, a Facetime call, or literally telling someone 'I'm on my way," and driving over to their house, we could do a lot more showing up for one another."