FRIENDSHIP

I have been pondering on the friendships that I have.

There are friends that I've known for 20 to 40 years; old and dear friends that I will call every now and again and vice-versa and we'll chat as if we've been chatting daily....subconsciously, knowing that we will be life-long friends regardless...and yet we don't share the day-to-day stuff with each other, the daily joys, fears, tears and disappointments. I quick call to catch up on the 'memorable' and 'big' stuff, seems to suffice.

In between, there are many, many people I have met and now consider my friend and they all add to my life in a very unique way.....none the same as the other.

There are also those that have hurt me and disappointed me along the way, and I'm sure I've done the same to them, but still, and always, we are friends.

But in the past four or five years, I have met people that, for some inexplicable reason, I have developed an extraordinary bond with.

I believe that with age, hardships, life-lessons, comes a God given wisdom and a sudden appreciation for reality and truth and peace within one's life and within ones soul... the need for these becomes all-consuming and we yearn for, seek, find and then begin to function from that long suppressed spiritual plane....because we now can. The 'mom' has time, the 'wife' has space. We are suddenly confronted with the 'me' ...the one that we have ignored for so long or been afraid of. We suddenly start to see clearly when, like paint peeling of a wall, the wealth, insecurity, position in life, anger, resentment and pain are and have always been, just the coating of a crazed, judgmental, superficial and fickle word ..we suddenly are able to see deeper, the raw structure of our lives, that which gives us strength, that which is meaningful and beautiful....and now, only now, we start to value it. We seek people that can understand and in their own way, feed that value too, not only through their own lives, but in others so that that 'structure' which is you is able to truly live and stay strong.

I am now so aware that my friends are being carefully chosen for me. There are no chance meetings. There is a roll being for filled in these friendships, even if its just to share some deep spiritual understanding, like mindedness, a gift, abandoning laughter, and deep hurts...what a blessing to have found compassion and unconditional love from another human being.