MAMA LESSONS: FRIENDSHIPS PART 1 - MEANING

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"Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity."

Kahil Gibran

Our lives bring us many relationships. Some stem out of love. Some stem out of location. Some stem out of loins. The relationship that aids in all other relationships enduring is a true friendship. But what is one and how does one nurture? Let us begin with the former. Discovering the meaning of a true friendship my Babe, is difficult. For like love in a lot of ways, only you can define it. Only you can take what has been given by another and interpret it. Hopefully I can impart some wisdom.

1. A friendship is a healthy agreement between two parties. It involves supporting others in positive ways to benefit their well-being. Friendships begin to go awry when there is a break in the agreement.

2. A friendship may be specific to a certain phase in our life, but doesn't mean it is any less significant. Our lives are on a journey, a journey of constant change. This means that our ideas about life change.

3. Trust is the most valuable thing you can offer someone. For with that they can experience the world and others without fear. A true friend nurtures that trust. Yes, we are all human and make mistakes which leads me to...

4. Friends make mistakes, but acknowledge, apologize and usually make them without intention.

5. Laughter without judgment.

6. The most blissful thing you can do with a friend is simply EXPERIENCE.

7. Rarely speaking ill of others is a good indication that they are not speaking ill about you.

8. SHARE love. MAKE memories. EMBRACE without judging. INSPIRE joy.

As Cynthia Bourgeault notes on GOOP.COM:

Friends forever (...) seem to share three characteristics:

1. They have a capacity to grow with you (and you with them) through life's changing circumstances

2. They are low-maintenance, rarely-to-never imposing themselves or laying expectations on you

3. contact with them, when it comes, is never a duty but always a gift 'heart to heart'

Such friends- always a rare and special breed have an uncanny knack for being able to stay in tune with you emotionally over huge gaps of time and space.