Thursday, December 30, 2010

Faces of Friendship

Time off creates time to be in touch with friends. Time with friends means time to reflect on friendship. It is another one of those things that moves through time, evolving and changing. Age, location, circumstance....each an energy that creates the change. There are also shades and levels of friendship. An ebb and flow also create a natural flow between the shades and levels.
I wish I was one of the lucky people who hung on to their childhood friendships. I wish I could have held the strings tight and continued the whispering of secrets, experiencing firsts together, spinning in the love/hate relationship only a child can deal with, and lighting up every day when they entered my presence. I don't think anything comes close to those first friendships. I let go...I let time steal it away. So now once in a while I get a friend request, an email....but it is gone. Too long, too much valley between us. It is a quick catch up, and then nothing.
The highschool friendships..ha! I poisoned those in the moment with the selfishness of my own teen world.
Which brings me to my friendships as an adult. Each so different, even purposeful, so driven by who I am and where I am. The ones that matter, that keep me afloat, those are binding. Days and months go by, and we pick up the phone or meet for breakfast, and we pick up where we left off. It changes over time, but it is easy. There is no work, no effort....just this love between us and we know we'd do anything for that person. We always talk of the past, always remember where we have been and always wish we were more present in each other's life now. But we are seperated by circumstance, space and situation. So we revel in what we get.
They say friends come and go...I don't think so. I think they just follow the current of our lives. They come in with the tides, and refresh us and we see and welcome them each time. But even when they are out on the horizon, we are aware of their presence and wait for the tide to bring them back.

6 comments:

  1. I know exactly what you mean when you talk about the distance that can't be bridged with friends who have slipped away. I have tried to reconnect with some of my high school, or before friends but the distance is more than geographical, although it's that, too.

    Count your blessings for the adult friendships you've forged. Good friends are hard to come by, for sure.

    Loved your post, Terry.

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  2. "They say friends come and go...I don't think so. I think they just follow the current of our lives. They come in with the tides, and refresh us and we see and welcome them each time. But even when they are out on the horizon, we are aware of their presence and wait for the tide to bring them back."

    I love the imagery that this paragraph evokes for me, especially the last sentence. A wonderful description of friendship!

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  3. Oooooooooo....that closing paragraph! Perfect metaphors. Yes, our lives do flow like a current, don't they? And the tides moving the friends closer and farther at different times, but our never losing an awareness of the friends themselves.
    This is my favorite piece of yours that I have read. I really find that imagery inspiring. It is already turning over in my head and firing my imagination. Well done!

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  4. This is great. So so great! I almost find the language you used to describe each type of friendship mirrored the feel of those friendships, so it matured as the piece went on. Which is what made it so great. Have I said "great" enough yet?
    I love and adore this:
    "They say friends come and go...I don't think so. I think they just follow the current of our lives. "

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  5. Okay, I'm definitely with May and Kelly. That final paragraph is ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT. Love the idea that friendships never leave, just follow the "current of our lives." That's such a lovely way to think of it.

    Like you I wish I had held on tighter to those childhood friendships that I can never get back, but I love the thought that even though I may not be the best of friends with those people now they shaped me and helped me become the person I am.

    Thanks so much for linking up, Terry. This was really a lovely way to look at friendship.

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  6. This prompt has produced some wonderful stories about friendships. Within each post, I've found a line that just makes the back of my neck get that little tingle.

    This line, especially...." I wish I could have held the strings tight and continued the whispering of secrets, experiencing firsts together, spinning in the love/hate relationship only a child can deal with, and lighting up every day when they entered my presence."

    Made me sad because, at this stage of my life, there will never be another friendship similar to our very first. But, better to have had that...than none!

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