Motivational Article

My mother collects what she calls, friends.
Even in her advanced age, she still has the energy and the
willingness to get to know new people whilst continuing to
invest time in the ones she already knows.
She remembers their birthdays and anniversaries;
She invites them for dinners and parties;
She remembers their children and grandchildren's names;
She remembers their past and background, etc... etc...
She truly knows her art.

To learn and master the art of friendship you need to
practice hanging out, learn to reach out to people and
invest time on a regular basis, so as to maintain these
valuable relationships.

I never really had the interest in forming the sort of
friendships my mother did.
Her style didn't really fit me.
I felt burdened by the sense of duty it appeared to involve.
I looked for other qualities in friendships.
I needed to discover for myself my own definition of what
true friendship entailed.

Today I have a few very close friends.
Although I have maintained most of these friendships for
many years, they still inspire a sense of awe within me.
They contain an essence not readily explainable, a
'something' which I can only call magic...

This magic has to do with the opening and sharing of my
heart on a deeper level.

It has to do with the absolute knowing, that in a moment of
need, my friend will be there and provide for me exactly
what I need, at that time.

It has to do with trusting as well as being honest and
vulnerable.

It is about moments when I see my friend as he or she is,
and they see me exactly as I am.

It is about mirroring our true self to each other.

On the social scale of friendship, I tend to be somewhat
lousy.
I regularly forget birthdays, rarely invite people to my
home, and almost never take time off for vacations with my
family, let alone with friends.

Therefore the friends I have, tend to be the sort of people
that can pick up on a conversation as if we had met only
yesterday, when in fact it may have been more than a year
since we last had contact.

These are the people I can call in the middle of the night
when weighed down by doubt and fear, or during those times
when I feel somewhat lost.

These are the people that will board a plane at a moment's
notice, to be with me in my worst moments as well as in my
best ones.

These are the people that confront me with all my 'blind
spots' and when I react adversely, they hug me and let me
know I'm ok.

These are the people with whom I have been able to make a
contribution in a way that allows them to grow and live a
more fulfilling life.

I guess friendship for me is a conscious quest for love in
the relationship rather than control.
It is about caring and being there for each other.

I once heard a definition of a friend:

"A friend is one who knows us, but loves us anyway."

I like that...