Kickstarter #6 - Friends
I want us today to consider our bounty of friends. Friends who’ve stayed by our side, and if not physically, who have stayed in touch through the passing of time. Through the passage of time, we have lost many friends along the way. Phases of life disconnect us. Work takes them away and sometimes ourselves. Interests grow apart.
It is a sad fact that your circle of friends dwindles as you grow older, but the friends who continue to remain in close quarters become even more precious to you. I recently caught up with a friend I’d made while in primary school on a social networking site and he told me I was the only one from that phase in life he’s still in contact with. So I asked him if he knew the secret formula to how our friendship had stood the test of time. His reply was, ‘When you’re able to pick up from where you left off’. Our friendship had remarkably weathered the passing of time though we’d lost contact for half our lives. It had been well-shielded from eroding pressures of time because of the solid foundations we’d built a long time ago.
About a month ago, I arranged to have dinner with a classmate from secondary school. We’ve been close buddies and he’s relocating to London to work in a week’s time. He shared how having to uproot and to leave his friends and family behind was getting to him and that he didn’t want anyone sending him off because it wouldn’t be a dry-eyed affair. I respected his request. While friends may come and go in our lives, we are blessed with friends who’ll always be in contact with us no matter how physically distant they are to us and however long that period will be.
Our friends have the power to stir up fond memories of chapters of our lives, of moments of sweetness, to the sour and bitter. They bring us back to the ‘once-upon-a-time’ for us, and because they’re able to do that, we’re able to see how far we’ve come, how much headway we’ve made in life and be thankful.
Friends are also an antidote for being self-absorbed. They allow us to reach out to them with our hands and hearts when we partake in their frustrations, hurts and regrets. Friends remind us that we can be there for them and that the favour is mutually returnable. If the circumstances in your life are crippling you, look to your friends to cheer you upwards and onwards. Just like marathoners feed on the support of bystanders who cheer them from the sides of the long run, our friends can do the same for us and we for them.
It is a sad fact that your circle of friends dwindles as you grow older, but the friends who continue to remain in close quarters become even more precious to you. I recently caught up with a friend I’d made while in primary school on a social networking site and he told me I was the only one from that phase in life he’s still in contact with. So I asked him if he knew the secret formula to how our friendship had stood the test of time. His reply was, ‘When you’re able to pick up from where you left off’. Our friendship had remarkably weathered the passing of time though we’d lost contact for half our lives. It had been well-shielded from eroding pressures of time because of the solid foundations we’d built a long time ago.
About a month ago, I arranged to have dinner with a classmate from secondary school. We’ve been close buddies and he’s relocating to London to work in a week’s time. He shared how having to uproot and to leave his friends and family behind was getting to him and that he didn’t want anyone sending him off because it wouldn’t be a dry-eyed affair. I respected his request. While friends may come and go in our lives, we are blessed with friends who’ll always be in contact with us no matter how physically distant they are to us and however long that period will be.
Our friends have the power to stir up fond memories of chapters of our lives, of moments of sweetness, to the sour and bitter. They bring us back to the ‘once-upon-a-time’ for us, and because they’re able to do that, we’re able to see how far we’ve come, how much headway we’ve made in life and be thankful.
Friends are also an antidote for being self-absorbed. They allow us to reach out to them with our hands and hearts when we partake in their frustrations, hurts and regrets. Friends remind us that we can be there for them and that the favour is mutually returnable. If the circumstances in your life are crippling you, look to your friends to cheer you upwards and onwards. Just like marathoners feed on the support of bystanders who cheer them from the sides of the long run, our friends can do the same for us and we for them.
posted by Stan at
9:50 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home