The Mystery of Friendships

I spent some time with a bunch of friends last night and it was wonderful. The most wonderful thing about it was that there is really no reason for us to be friends. I looked around at the group of wonderful women I was with, and realize that there is nothing tying us together except for a genuine love of eachother.

Let me explain.

We all have those friends that we have because our parents were friends. Those are friends you are given. Yes, I understand that there comes a point when one must decide to keep the friendship (and it is always tragic when the other friend does not make the same effort), but for the most part, that is a frienship that just is.

Then there are those friends that you have had forever. These (i think) are the best kind, especially because at some point they move from being a friendship to being a true family relationship. There are friends I have in my life that I don't consider friends, I consider them family. They see sides of me that other friends would never see, I can be freeer with them. There is, however, a downside to this, if I am free in my expression with them, or they with me, there is a chance of becomming rude, or of taking advantage of their emotion or vice versa. We only hurt the ones we love, and we can hurt no one like family.

There are other friends that you have by mutual association. School friends, work friends, activity friends. These are people that you are comepletely comfortable with in certain settings. Outise of those settings, it gets a little uncomfortable.

I have friends in all of these areas, but the friends that I was with last night are diferent. On the outside, it looks like we're just activity friends, school friends or something like that. But the relationship we have goes deeper. We are getting to know eachother on a different level, we are not at the point where we can deeply wound eachother, but we can certainly bless and encourage one another on a level that other friends can not.

In a few months, I'll be leaving and there will be some people I will inevitably loose contact with. However, for this time, right now, they are amazing people to me, and I am extremely grateful.