Sunday, December 03, 2006

Friends

Friendship is one of the things that make life worth living, making life a blessing instead of a curse.

Much of the time, the connection between what I do and anything positive in the world is very difficult to discern. I schlep off to work, do a bunch of arcane, weird and specific things, and, if I do it right, nothing exciting happens. When I do things wrong it is very apparent that this is the case, because people run around, scream at me, etc. :-)

With friends, I feel that like there is an immediate and positive contribution to my world. When I see someone smile because they met me, or hear someone's voice pick up because I called, I feel that I've made someone's life just a little bit better. It's a small thing, definitely not life changing, etc. but it's something I can feel good about.

The importance of friends to me, on the other hand is profound. One person noted that I can filter out the positive aspects in life or "steal defeat from the jaws of victory." To have people who seek out my company for no other reason than because they like being around me is a validation that, when I stop to think about it, is very powerful.

It is strange that given how important friends are to me, I sometimes take such things for granted. Like water, air or food, they fade into the background when you have them. It sure is apparent when you don't have them, but when you do, it seems like it's nothing special.

This is, of course, one of the things I like about "Blog Your Blessings Sunday:" that I stop for a second and acknowledge things like this. So here's to friends and friendship.

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful post ......... friends are a blessing indeed

Blue Panther said...

Hey!!!
A great post indeed, Friends are great blessings and more often than not we do tend to take them for granted and we realize how important they were to us when they move away.
Have a great week!

Unknown said...

lol

i think you captured one of the finer points of the byb that it does help us to pause & reflect... even for those precious few moments

thats why even in the workplace, its often empowering to receive postive feedback or even verbal recognition from a peer, boss, etc.

the small things matter & friendship like all the other 'ships' require constant banking in & maintenance =)

Unknown said...

This is a difficult topic for me as I live in a new place and have but one friend here. It is hard, especially with the holidays coming. I've never before had such a dearth of friends, and it's bizarre. I don't know what to think and wonder if there is something wrong with me. Will I be a middle-aged hermit with no friends because no one wants to be around me? Or am I a friendless spinster because I neglected to marry and have kids like my other friends who are preoccupied by that life? It bothers me because it's scary.

Whatever said...

Thanks to all of you for your kind words.

A special note to Canuckistani: you are in my thoughts. Your comments throw into sharp relief why I was giving thanks yesterday.

You may be feeling down, but you've still managed to create a good article on your site about an important topic. My hat is off to you, I'm not sure I could do the same.