“Life is nothing without friendship” – Cicero
I am blessed with friends. In my younger years, I struggled with making friends because I was awkward and did not feel good about myself. However, I did have some friends at church and felt blessed.
Last weekend I had the opportunity to spend time with friends from high school. I went to Modesto to celebrate my friend’s birthday. We have maintained a friendship ever since our sophomore year in high school. (I graduated in 1979, so it has been a long time!) We had a wonderful time.
She voiced a desire to see some of the people we went to high school with and managed to arrange times to meet with two of our high school friends.
I am no longer the shy, awkward, and unconfident person I was. I was excited about visiting old friends and being the confident and successful person I am today. I feel like I have things to offer. I shared some of my journey with them by giving them the book I published. I also held conversations with them and felt good about what I said.
I arrived in Modesto on Friday. Mary and I spent time talking and watching an old movie. Saturday morning, we had breakfast with a friend. Then we had dinner with another friend. On Sunday, we went to church, and I spent a short time with another friend. It has been years since I have seen and interacted with those women. I was delighted to reconnect!
I am thankful for all the support I get from my friends today and the reconnection with old friends. I am blessed!
What You Can Do to Keep Friends
1. Keep having interactions that sustain the friendship.
2. Keep the interactions frequent.
3. Don't push away your friends for no reason.
4. Deal with friendship conflicts; it's worth the temporary pain
5. Be more open to your friends.
Enjoy life, work at sustaining friendships, and be open to developing new friendships!
