Friendship

Friendship is one of the most important things in life - in my opinion. But it can also be one of the hardest at times. A true and lasting friendship, in the same way as a marriage, requires commitment and effort.

This has been somewhat of a challenge to me over the last few years. I have been somewhat self absorbed and selfish of late, some would say this is understandable i suppose, but i think some of my friendships have suffered as a result.

Actually, this is what I thought untill just this weekend. This weekend i went on a women's retreat with my church. It was a great weekend. I finally felt well enough, and brave enough to share the details of my life over the last few years. The response has been so uplifting. Many women came to me and told me how encouraged they were by my strength and growth, others told me stories of thier own depression, and other problems that they had not told before. I formed so many close friendships in such a short period of time. It is clear to me now that honesty and openness are also key to friendship. And times of struggle can lead to some of the best things in life!

I also realised that those friendships I thought I had damaged were not damaged at all. Those friends that are true friends have been there for me, waiting for me to be able to put in the time and energy that they had been putting in all this time. They have not condemmed me, just been patient. The reason we don't talk as much, or see each other as much is because only one of us has been contributing. They haven't given up on me at all.