Friendships

Sometimes a woman alone can be a fragile and defenceless creature when faced with the pain of heartache, but together, well together it seems that the fragility and confusion dissipates long before it has had time to fully take root.

There is something great and precious in friendships that we make in our lives, and the ability to distinguish between relationships that will last and those that never really began is the greatest gift you can give yourself. True friends that I have known in my never ending stream of moving between relatives have shown me how to tell real friends from those just pretending.

True friendship is knowing when to sit quietly and allow a person to breathe, knowing when to turn up unasked with wine and ice cream, it is knowing when to say difficult things for the right reasons and it is knowing never to judge as you sit in a clinic all day after a one night mistake. Friends teach you lessons that from anyone else would be insulting, they explain to you that although sex relieves some tension it is love that created it in the first place and even a broken clock gets it right occasionally.

I have known many people in my life claiming to be a friend, knowing the right things to say to your face but speaking their minds the moment your back is turned, but those are not the friends I am keeping. I realised today as we all flocked together for a friend who just needed the sanity that only friends can provide, that I have a few true friends in my life already. Not just facebook friends, or friends that won't reach out the moment life moves on around them but friends that no matter what will remain next to you, forever young even as the grey hairs begin to show, strong supporting each other from heartache to heartache because sometimes when you have no-one else to turn to, you still have friends. The trust between friends opens up unimaginable doors, creating a safety blanket for those bad days and a memory bank for the days that you never want to forget.

So this goes out to all of my true friends, thank you for influencing me into being the best me just by being who you are.