Friends

pleaseer2001

Ok It has been a little bit since there was a fluffy post by P2..So here it goes!

I have been thinking the last few months about family,friends and what role they take in my life.I have a good circle of people where I live but many do not understand my need to be who I am and to just live life and not give a hoot what anyone else feels the right or wrong way should be. I live my life based on what I feel is right for myself and my kids...not what most would feel as the norm. In many ways I ask for the same things everyone does..Respect....Love....Honesty...Kindness....and true motivation to be ourselves.

So is the saying true...we can pick our friends...not our family?

And if so what is a true friend to you?

This is what it means to me!

A friend is one of the nicest things you can have and one of the nicest things you can be,

A friend is a living treasure, and if you have oneyou have one of the most valuable gifts in life.

A friend is the one who will always be beside you,through all the laughter and through each and every tear.

A friend is the one thing you can always rely on, the someone you can open up to, the one wonderful person who always belives in you in a way no one else seems to.

A freind is a hand that is always holding yours,no matter how close or far apart you may be.

A friend is someone who is always there and who always cares.

A friend is a feeling of forever in your heart.

A friend is the one door that is always open.

A friend is the one to whom you can give your key.

A friend is one of the nicest things you can have and one of the nicest things you can be.

P2

jeanniebeanz

A friend is the one door that is always open.

*sigh* If the above statement is true, I never had any friends until I was 33, and found them outside the jw's. Cause I'll tell ya, the door was pretty soundly slammed in my face by the people I grew up with, and all my family! Ah, well.

They are beautiful sentiments, P2. Thanks.

J

Crumpet

A friend to me is someone who knows my dreadful faults first hand without fully understanding the reasons and still embraces me. I have a really special friend called Cat who did that, I judged her for something without knowing the facts and was publicly mean to her and she forgave me and i absolutely adore the girl and her boyfriend.

Dragonlady76

P2, The sentiments are lovely.

It's such a shame that friends can treat you better than family sometimes.

Dragonlady76

Dustin

I wrote a song a long time ago that apllies. The chorus goes like this

Family ties aren't unspoken

Family ties can be chosen

Family ties in the end have been broken

I went through a rough spot with my family and lost alot of friends after I left. But now I know who my true friends and family always were. I also have met wonderful new friends.

Dustin

JamesThomas

Dear P2,

That was beautifully expressed.

This may sound strange but the warm sense of joy that you are attributing to friendship can be felt while being silently present and lovingly attentive in the moment, even if unaccompanied and seemingly alone. There is a unity, a meeting, a communion, yes a friendship with Life that can be exquisitely felt like an effervescent tickle through your soul, when the mind is quiescent and we are openly and non-judgmentally present in this moment with what the universe is presenting.

It's as if all exists and thrives on our attention; IS an extension of our attention.

I do not wish to take away from anything you said, just kinda expand on it a bit.

j

pleaseer2001

Well James thank you:

I think you really did see what I was meaning....A friend does not have to be a physical part of our lives .

Mind, body and spirit.

A person can be in our lives in so many diffrent ways.....A still take a part of it to thier soul.

Many times we put conditions on our epectation for others and if we just learn to openly expand our minds to the possiblities to share oursleves with others...We can open our lives to so many new experiences!

A kind hand and heart can change our lives forever!

P2

Ticker

Right on P2 From briefly talking to you in chat you seem like a really cool sensitive person. True friends are hard to find and I value my friendships that I do have, and not one darn JW has been a true friend that stuck with me. Thanks for posting P2.

Ticker

boa

'Friends come and go, but enemies accumulate'

Seriously, most of my life experience with friends is that they were all conditional. No matter how close, attached or good I felt about them, I came to realize that a religious belief system was the foundation for that friendship. Don't even need to start with the rejection from family which is even worse! Its proof positive to me that most times blood ISN'T thicker than water. I have better friends now that most of my blood relatives. These friends are my new family and other than genes, are family in every way.

I most certainly prefer the current situation now, where I have many less friends, in fact I could easily count them on the fingers of one hand, but they are unconditional in their friendship.

I think one sure test of whether a person is a true friend as described above is as one poster described, that despite our worst faults and even out and out screwups, they still will be your friend and look beyond to the big picture.

Friendship to me, unlike the opening line to this post, is long-term. I give all to my very few, close friends and open myself to the experience fully. Everyone else gets varying pieces of me but never the full deal. To give all to your friends while also not smothering them, is another topic altogether lol.

As the description above said, friends are a living treasure, a precious gem if you will, and a shining light in the heart. One can have a bad day or string of them, and feel better inside just thinking of those who really care yet may not be right there for you at that moment.

Great thread...

boa...

pleaseer2001

TY Ticker you are cool too!!!

You will find the more you look the better friends you can have.

P2

Friends

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