๐ฅ
May 23 โข Inspiration Corner
On Friendship
What is it, really?
Not the word. The thing itself.
Can you be friends with your own blood? Your mother, your brother, the one who knew you before you knew yourself?
Can you be friends with the one you share a bed with?
The person across the desk, the one you see more than your own heart?
And what about the four-legged ones? The ones who never ask for an explanation, just your hand on their fur?
Here is what I have learned, after all these years of stumbling and getting back up...
My heart does not know how to sort people into boxes marked "family," "colleague," "stranger." It just knows you. It just knows here. If you are in front of me, or even just somewhere in this same strange, beautiful world, and there is a spark of recognition between us..ah, you too, then you are my friend.
Some come and stay.
They plant themselves like old oaks. I lean on them. They lean on me. Seasons change, but the roots hold.
Some come and go.
They pass through like migrating birds. For a while, we fly together. Then the wind shifts. Their path bends away.
And that is not loss, that is life. I bow to where they are going. They bow to where I am staying. No bitterness. Just gratitude for the stretch of road we shared.
And some I have not seen for years. Decades, even. But if my phone lit up tonight with their name, and they needed me,
I would move.
Distance is not real.
Time is not real.
What is real is this...I remember you.
You remember me.
Nothing else matters.
Friendship with family is a different river. It runs fast in places. Rocks underneath. Old wounds floating to the surface. But here is the thing, the love is under all of that.
Always was.
Always will be.
The challenge is just the weather. The love is the ground.
With a spouse?
That is friendship that has learned to cook together, to cry in the dark together, to argue and return like two old trees whose branches have grown into one.
With animals?
That is friendship without a single lie.
They do not pretend. Neither do I, when I am with them.
The most beautiful friendships I have known are the ones where almost nothing is said.
You sit.
You breathe.
You both know.
No performance.
No fixing.
Just being there.
Listening without rushing to answer.
Holding space the way a riverbank holds the water, not grasping, just present.
That kind of listening is a gift. And like all true gifts, it comes back to you. Maybe not tomorrow. Maybe not this year. But one day, when you are the one who needs to be heard, someone will sit with you in that same silence. No time limit. No scorecard.
Why is it so hard to tell someone I see you. I am grateful?
We assume they know. We assume there will be a tomorrow. We assume a hug can wait.
But the old teachers say:...Do not wait.
So todayโright nowโI am saying it.
To the friend I have never met who reads these words.
To the one who leaves a kind comment when I most need it.
To the one who just listens without judging my crooked path.
Thank you.
You are part of my life. Not because of what you do for me. Simply because you are. And because somewhere in this great spinning mystery, our threads touched.
That is enough.
That is everything.
With Love โค๏ธ
Always
Mark
9
11 comments
On Friendship
powered by
skool.com/the-peaceful-path-4607
This space exists for people who want to slow down, reflect, and live with a little more awareness and kindness โ without pressure, labels, or dogma.
Suggested communities
Powered by