Friend

A friend in need is a friend in deed.  

Friend is a word created to describe people who are close to us that are not our enemy. In life, we come across different categories of friends.

Childhood friends are people we meet during our childhood. Those were the days when everything is like a rainbow. Some of us do keep in touch with a few of our childhood friends. 

Peers are friends we stick together in a close group in our teenage years. We eat together, sleep together, and basically do everything together because we have similar interests.

Colleagues are friends we make at work. When we are close to our colleagues, most often they will help us thrive in our career. They are people we see at least one third of the time in our adulthood.

Folks are friends we meet in our golden years. They see through each other’s years till the end of time. Some may say we still have many more years to go but before we know it, the time is here.

Neighbours are people who live nearby. We watch out for each other, and nose around each other’s lives. Somehow, neighbours are the people who we see very little but hear a lot about.

Social friends are people we meet at a bar or in social media. Some social friends can end up lending a helping hand but most would just be a passenger in our journey through life.

Humans connect well with fellow humans. There will be times when we seem to have a thought so deep within us we would like to keep secret. We cannot tell a human friend because we are worried they may not be able to keep secret forever. What do we do?

Keeping secrets creates stress and fortunately, there are many ways to release the growing tension. Secrets are interesting but when a secret is held for too long, it becomes a burden. It is best to leave the weight elsewhere and move on with life.

A walk through the forest is a way to relief ourselves. Some may say that the forest is too far from our urban live. Perhaps if we think out of the box, we can bring the forest into our homes. We can have a pot or two of greens. We water them, we nourish them, we nurture them, and we sing to them. Plants are alive. They can understand. We surely can have a chat with them too.

Play time is great. Observing the simple lives of animals will give us insight. When we understand that all we need to survive is food, air, and shelter, our lives would be turned around. We often dwell in the past and worry about the future but never live in the present. Animals are always living in the present. A visit to a farm is great but having a pet at home is even better. There are many shelter animals out there waiting to shower us with love. We only need to show them love and they will give us back ten folds.

Techies may find that electronics makes them shine. There are people who would spend most of their time playing games; be it computer games, smartphone games, online games, or video games. Whatever the games, it is their way to live life in freedom. However, there are some who ends up being brainwashed in the process. We do have to be careful of the type of games we choose to be friends with. 

Spiritual people may find their inner universe being their best friend. Whenever there is something bothering them, all they need to do is to sit quietly and connect to their inner self. Perhaps we may say that the person is a loner. However, if we do realize, a person who can stay calm in all situations are the people we all love to go to when we are faced with problems.

In the end, it all depends on us how we want to define the word friend.

 

Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it’s all over.     

Gloria Naylor, American novelist, 1950-2016