Monday, February 19, 2007

Friendships

For the past year, I have been struggling with my relationship health. You know how it is - we all have our roles in life: mother, wife, coworker, teacher. I tend to want to make others happy and fix problems. And that, as most of us know, can wear you down and break your spirit.

I had a good friend here in the town in Virginia when I moved here 13 years ago. Through circumstances beyond my control, I lost that friendship about 7 years ago. Recently, I’ve found myself wondering why I haven’t let anyone get close, why I didn’t have any friends nearby. It’s not that I’ve been doubting: “Why doesn’t anyone like me?” It’s been more of, “Why am I not willing to put the time aside to develop a friendship?”

I am sitting in tears typing this because my friend Shelina has taken me back to a time when that’s what it was about - spending time together and enjoying each other. Why do we let life dictate so much of who we are and what we do?

I am so thankful for my renewed relationship with Shelina and her gracious words that have touched my heart. To steal a line from Star Trek and address it to Shelina: “I have been and always shall be your friend.” Thank you for your friendship.

2 comments:

Shelina said...

I'm glad I have you.

Don't beat yourself up about friendships. I think it is a universal condition - not having enough time / energy / motivation to develop friendships. Somehow we all think everyone else has what we are having a hard time reaching for, only to realize everyone else is also having a hard time with it.

Mrs. Goodneedle said...

I honestly think that there are friendships for different times in our lives... not all friends are for all time; except for the very few rare and precious ones; and that's OK.