How We Have Come

I am learning to love the way my friendships grow and change. There is a natural ebb and flow that happens in the course of friendship as we each walk the path that is laid for us. The friend I had yesterday is not the friend I have today. I am not now the friend I was then. I am coming to see that this is beautiful.

At the beginning, we were innocent. We didn't know one another very well. Then familiarity bred an almost-prideful acknowledgment that we knew who the other was. Suffering and shared experiences bonded us. Separate paths changed our perspectives on each other. Other friends enriched our lives and gave us more to offer one another. Jealousies cropped up and died, hurts were held and forgotten. Personalities clashed and love languages were shared and taught.

And always, there has been something that makes us remember who we were, love who we are, and hope for what we are becoming.

There are friendships that have died that I will always hold in my heart, and friendships that survive to this day, beyond all expectation on my part. Life treats our friendships with the roughest sort of courage - the ones that remain are strong enough for me to be vulnerable enough to cherish them, to hope that they will go on and on.