"Friendship"

This word has or should have meaning. And probably, it has different meaning and depth to each of us. Some people confuse acquaintances with friends. Some folks have a great many friends and that is all well and good. And some have only a handful of friends and I can reasonably say that is true of just about everyone. We all have ‘buddies’. But do we all have true friends? I certainly hope so.

Personally, I have quite a few acquaintances and only a handful of true friends. I have even less than a handful of best friends, those wonderful folks I can be my true self with and not have shame. In fact, I can safely say that I have had only three or four best friends. One I haven’t seen in over thirty five years. He was my best friend at that time of my life. He was my running buddy. He was my roommate. I could be myself and laugh at myself with him.

I have only about three who I can truly say are my best friends in this time of my life. One has been my best friend for over twenty years now. Another has been my best friend for almost six years. We still get together and shoot the shit, talk about one another’s problem of the day. I have met one here a few months ago who is destined to be one of my closest friends. They all have one thing in common. I fell in love with all of them in the beginning and I even married one of them, twice. But I have learned to nurture our friendships and make them last until I take my last breath. It takes, above all else, honesty and trust. It takes patience and it takes a willingness to look in a mirror every once in a while and realize that you can only judge yourself. It is an endless acceptance of whom they are and who you are. It takes love at the highest level for them and yourself.

I love each of my best friends equally yet differently, and that’s because they are different in their own right. They accept me for who I am in spite of knowing all there is to know about me. They understand me probably better than I understand myself.