Friends

I have been thinking a lot about friendship lately.



What is friendship? Is a merely a passing moment between two souls who fulfill a need for belonging to each other? Is it a mystical connection spread over years and plains?

As someone who (until the last 5-8 years) could count the number of truly close friends on one hand, I just don't know. I don't know why I have not been able to make and keep friends. I don't know what has changed since I turned 30 that has allowed me the gift of a wide net of folks I can call friends - even close ones! Am I more open to others? Am I finally comfortable enough in myself that I can open up to others?

And what happens when those friendships have potholes, roadblocks and other debris thrown in its path? How does one navigate with a friend who has yet to learn to fully communicate and to the untrained eye appears to be flaky? In my heart, I know that is not the case and the friend is still growing. I care enough to hold on and wade through it.

On the other hand, what about the friendships you need to let go of? How do you know when its time? How do you let go? I have learned to let go of many things over the years ( and look forward to many more!) but I cant seem to let go of people. Perhaps, it is in my nature to not give up on people and see the best that could be? Perhaps I view it as a failure of mine rather than a logical completion of a path?

I just don't know.

To my friends that I love and cherish ( and perhaps don't tell enough...) Thank You. I love you and I appreciate the fact that you are in my life. To the friends that have moved on, Thank You. You, too, have brought wonderful gifts of caring and letting go - even when it didn't feel like it at the time.

"Friendship is the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring all right out just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful friendly hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping and, with a breath of comfort, blow the rest away." - Dinah Maria Craik