Happy Canada Day!
July 1, 2018
The Process
July 5, 2018
The concept of friendship and friend is weighing on my mind. What is your definition of a friend? Is it someone who is steadfast for the long hauls, or is it a person who appears at the right time to help you navigate through a certain situation? Or can a friendship land on both islands?
Cards on the table – is deep dive into who I am, and what I have done in my life. Today is all about friendship.
My first best friend was in nursery school. Her name was Donna. When she moved, I had my first taste of heartbreak. I was 4.
There was a girl in my grade one class, named Tiffany. She would tell me every day that I looked ugly, just like a frog. She also proclaimed that I would never have any friends. She looked exactly like me.
When I was six, I met LPM. She and I became friends. We are still friends after 39 years.
When Mom passed away I shut down. Friendships became the perfect distraction for me. It was not healthy.
I have enabled the destructive actions of others, all the while using the term friend. I am not proud of this.
I believe friendship requires honesty.
I destroyed a friendship because of my jealousy. When my friend Irene started dating I refused to support her. I turned into the worst kind of person. She broke up with the guy. I apologized but it was too late. This annihilated our friendship. To this day, I feel guilty about this.
I will support my friends with all that I can give, but I will not allow myself to be pulled into their darkness.
Enablement is the defiler of friendship.
I believe friendship to be fluid. People flow in and out of our lives. Each person that I have called, friend, has helped me to unearth a piece of me.
I tend to let my guard down slowly when entering into a friendship. At times I never let my guard down, and the person only sees who they need me to be. I am working on this.
I am grateful for the friends who stood by me through depression and isolation.
Through their understanding, I finally understood why I could empathize with those who suffered.
Now I would like to hear from you. What is your definition of a friend?
3 Comments
A friend offers hope, love, kindness and understanding. A friend is someone who loves your talents, as you love theirs. Someone to embrace when they are sad, and someone you can embrace when they are sad. A friend is always there in times of trouble and times of happiness. Friends keep secrets, friends share secrets. Friends are honest, and lead you in the right direction as you do for them.
Friends sometimes drift apart, but there is always a return, a union, and a love that only friends share. Recently a friend of mine told me a story about a friend he grew up with, they lost contact and my friend was sad. They have found each other and are re-kindling there friendship ! My friend was over the moon !
Never forgotten, friends are a valuable part of life.
Thank you for your comment David. I agree with you. People will come into our lives for a reason. I am grateful for the friends that I have and I hope they feel the same about me.
It’s LPM! Giselle has been my longest standing friend as well. 39 glorious years. Now in my forties, I’ve realized the old adage that you have friends for a reason, season or lifetime, is in fact true for me. I now embrace when I have friends only for a short period of time, and look fondly on the time we spent before circumstances have made us drift apart. Because all our good times were exactly that-good times to look back on fondly. Maybe they aren’t meant to be in my life any more. Their chapter is done in my book, and I have to accept that.
And my friends of a lifetime, well, they are my lifelines. When I feel down, I know that when I reach out to them, that there will be boundless love and acceptance. And I thank God every day that I have several friends that I can count on no matter what. They’ve always got my back, and I’ve got theirs. Friends are the family that you choose. ❤️