Some thoughts on FRIENDSHIP

Hey guys, I'm back!  Did you MISS ME?  I hope so! It's been weeks
since I've last updated Show Me Your Look Today.  I've just been busy with life,
what else is new?  Ha!  So -- CHEERS to my coming back!
Let's drink iced tea to that.  (Photo below for proof, LOL!).

 We usually hang out Friday nights for some drink then Banchetto feast after...

Anyway...  let me post some new pics and
let's talk about something that all of us,
at one time or another,
have had trouble dealing with.

So here are my thoughts on FRIENDSHIP...

We will meet many people in our lives,
most of them will just
come into passing. 
Those who will stay long enough,
who will exert the effort to know us
-- as we get to know them --
they will become our friends.

It doesn't really matter where we meet them: 

 at work, in school, at a gathering, on the streets,

 at the mall, on facebook, on twitter...
 
We cannot judge people's character merely because
we met them from a venue
which do not seem acceptable for us.

A person's true value isn't bounded by geography, physical attributes, affiliation, family, background...  it's beyond all of that.  It may come as a surprise for some, but I  honestly do know a few people who had met their bestest friends or partners in life from the most peculiar places.  

Guess what we're all doing?  Tweeting!  It was thru Twitter that we've met and became really good friends.

Friendship is an opportunity that we will
encounter at the most unexpected time,
from the most unexpected places.

We shouldn't pass on the opportunity for who knows, maybe that person sitting
next to us might just become our soul-mate, our best friend, or maybe
-- our only friend.

Some friends will stay longer...
but the length of time they've become our friends will not matter --

what matters are the lessons we
will learn from the friendship

and, most definitely,

the new adventures we will share with them.

Friendship, like any other relationship,
is not as easy as it looks.
It's not all fun and happy moments.

There will be times when we need to share grief and sadness
as much as we will share triumphs and joys.

As we get to know our friends, we won't just feel elated or grieved...
we will have feelings that are in between --
we might feel annoyed, irritated, fed up, jealous, the list can go on...

Well, that's normal.  Eventually, as friends, we

will be able to settle

each other's differences.

We will work things out if we truly are persuaded of each other's worth.

Friends who truly value each other will work on their differences...

Over time, we will realize
that friendship isn't
selfish and imposing.
We will be happy for the triumph of our friends,
as much as we will feel the sorrow and emptiness when our friends are sad.

We accept them for who they are,
and will not try change them into becoming 
someone who they're not.

Sometimes, we will try to mold them
into becoming the people
who are acceptable for us.

We will be misled into believing that we like them
because they tell us things that we wanna hear;
that they present themselves in a way that's appealing
and acceptable for us;
and that they act or react in a manner
that we like and expect of them.

We will have our own version of what is right for them and somehow --
will try to persuade them to act in a way that we seem is right.

But we will outgrow all of that.  

Drunk? Nope!

There will be times when
the friendship will get boring.

The challenge is to be steadfast and to hold on.

The challenge is to still be friends with them
even when new ones come along. 

To stay loyal and true despite the familiarity that we have about them...
for sometimes, when things get too familiar, they might become boring.

I still have a lot to learn about friendship 
as much as I have a lot to learn about life. 

I try to keep my mind open to understand things that I normally can't.
And to accept things which I normally won't.  For this life is just a cycle,
what I give -- I shall receive.  What I sow, I reap.
What I do, shall also be done upon me.

You are all welcome
to become my friend.
But as I have mentioned from one of my posts in here,
I have my standards.  But then again,
I may defy those standards... for friendship
is more valuable than any of that.  
Friendship is a gift, a rare gift. 
It's a gift of life that we should all accept.

Thanks for reading, until my next post!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures too!

*Photos of Yvette Yzon and Kenneth Vincent Tuerco are used with permission.

tags: principles of friendship, some thoughts on how to be a friend