Let the Circle be Unbroken - Keeping Friendships Alive

            What does it take to keep a friendship alive? Think about that for a minute. What do you have to do to maintain a relationship with someone who is not your family? You might answer with keeping in touch and talking on regular basis. Be constantly appraised of what is going on in the other person’s life. Unless you are a valley girl, I do not think it is that simple.

            My fiancé has friends that he has gone months without speaking to, and suddenly they meet up and all is as it was. There’s a bond there, that neither time nor distance will diminish. People always say that male friendships and female friendships are different, but do they really have to be? Particularly with my college friends, and even one from back home, I can go a while without seeing or speaking to them, and it doesn’t change anything. So if it is not just keeping in touch, what does it take to keep a friendship alive?

            It takes a bond. It takes a deep sense of caring for that person. It takes that situation where you are fighting like cats and dogs and aren’t speaking, but then something bad happens and all you want is to make sure your friend will be okay, despite it all. Those issues don’t go away, but you can put them aside for the time being, for that person.

            I have come to realize this within the past week. I’ve also come to realize that no matter what happens between us, if I call you friend now, I will not walk away. At one point in my life, if things got rough, I would have. But I think my relationship with Bear has taught me that weathering through the rough spots with people can be the most rewarding part of friendship that you could have ever imagined. It’s the reward that none of us ever imagined, that I personally never saw coming. That realization that you would put aside your own issues to make sure that person is alright, that is friendship. No, not just friendship, that is love. And I have found that in a handful of people up here. My circle is small and closed, but it is strong. It would take a helluva a lot to break it. It’s easy to forget that, until push comes to shove, but it is true.

            This has been one of the hardest things to write as of late, as least where this blog is concerned. It’s a difficult subject because people have differing opinions and beliefs as to what constitutes friendship and what it takes to keep it. I venture to say some people have never even thought about what it takes to maintain friendship, because they’ve never had to worry about it, so surrounded by people as they are. But for those of us who walk alone the majority of the time, it matters who is standing there to back us up when sugar turns to shit. It matters who is standing on the side of our lone walk, waiting to pick us up when we fall.

Choose your friends wisely and be sure you’re willing to fight tooth and nail to keep them, no matter what, come what may. I’ve got my crew. Do you?

            P.S. Next week I’ll be posting something a little different for you. It’ll hopefully be the first of many such posts, but this particular kind of post will only come towards the end of the month each month. The topic for the following week is also set and it’s one I am super excited about.
            I can’t wait for my readers to see what I’ve got planned!