Chapter One and Friendship

 

 

Have you ever attended a ten year class reunion? How about a reunion celebrating twenty, thirty or more years?  It's strange when you come face to face with past schoolmates, especially when you haven't seen them for so long. It can be surreal to see their grown up adult bodies. It takes awhile to admit in your mind that the person you are looking at is who they are NOW.  Some people you don't even recognize because they are completely remodeled by either choice or nature. Their hair color has changed, weight, voice, etc. Some have aged gracefully. Some have suffered with illness, or others have made bad choices.

Candy, Dana, Laleen and Jeannine - chapter 1

This past Saturday, I had a mini reunion here at my home. Two of my friends from third grade that I speak about in the first chapter of my book came to visit. Their names are Dana and Jeannine. They both live in another state and happened to be spending a weekend in Scottsdale, Arizona celebrating their 50 year birthdays.  Since Jeannine and Dana recently read my book, they were compelled to come visit me here in Pine.  It had been at least twenty years since I had seen either of them and I was elated and excited to see them.

It was around 1:00 pm when they pulled into the driveway in a silver sports rental car. After opening the car doors and stepping out, I greeted them, we hugged and I welcomed them. They were eager to take a tour of our property.

We ate lunch on the front patio and during our meal, I eagerly asked them give me twenty years of updates. For several hours, each of us took turns  sharing our kids' accomplishments, struggles, along with husbands, jobs and activities.  I felt so honored that they took their time to come up and visit.

In a sense, it was surreal to me being here with them.

They mentioned at one point how surprised they were to learn while reading my book that my life from early childhood had been laced with struggle and challenge.  They seem to have enjoyed life with their family and friends and continue to do so. They have been blessed with happy, healthy and prosperous lives.

I told both of them how memories of our childhood friendship inspired me to talk about them in the first chapter of my book.

 

Candy Dana Jeannine

My best friend Laleen, who is also in the first chapter, was unable to rendezvous with Dana and Jeannine. We tried Face Timing her with the IPHONE, but to no avail, so we put her on speaker phone and after chatting, decided that the four of us must meet again soon.

It can be difficult to keep in touch with friends for whatever reasons like taking care of our own families, distance, etc. but true friendship surpasses time. There is that unspeakable bond that lasts a lifetime.  I have been blessed to have many good friends throughout my life. There have been a few that I chose to distance myself from because of their bad behavior.

 

I love what the book of Sirach says about a true friend:

…A kind mouth multiplies friends, and gracious lips prompt friendly greetings. Let your acquaintances be many, but one in a thousand your confidant. When you gain a friend, first test him, and be not too ready to trust him for one sort of friend is a friend when it suits him, but he will not be with you in time of distress. Another is a friend who becomes an enemy, and tells of the quarrel to your shame. Another is a friend, a boon companion, who will not be with you when sorrow comes. When things go well, he is your other self, and lords it over your servants; but if you are brought low, he turns against you and avoids meeting you. Keep away from your enemies; be on your guard with your friends. A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure. A faithful friend is beyond price, no sum can balance his worth. A faithful friend is a life-saving remedy, such as he who fears God finds; For he who fears God behaves accordingly, and his friend will be like himself. Sirach 6:5-17

Laleen and Candy 16 years old

I also found an article by Roy Armstrong about friendship.

Friends are a part of our lives. As the saying goes, a life without friends is a life without a sun. So, you can definitely see the importance of friends. However, friends can be divided into two groups, which are good friends and bad friends. When making friends, you should learn to distinguish between good and bad friends.

As for me, having one true friend is better than having a hundred bad friends. Don't you agree? A real friend is someone who you can trust very much. You can tell him or her anything without reward. And you will treat him or her sincerely. On the contrary, a bad friend is someone who will try every means to obtain benefits from you. Thus, we must be careful in choosing friends.

Here I have a humble suggestion. A friend who always treats people with honesty is a good friend. Inversely, a friend who flatters you to your face is not true friend. All in all, we must make friends with those who have good character and a kind heart. On the other hand, we should do our best to avoid keeping company with people who tells you to smoke cigarettes, steal from stores, lie to parents, or do drugs. These people will never be worthy to be your friends because they believe that being bad and rebellious is a good thing in society; they just have been watching too many movies.

The worst feeling in the world is to be alone and have nobody to share feelings with. Let me tell you my experience. I have a friend named Kelly. She is my most reliable and closest friend. This happened in high school. Under the pressure of studying, I often felt nervous and uneasy at that time. And I did not have the courage to share my feelings with my family. On the other hand, Kelly was always by my side and she encouraged me. Thanks to her, I was able to control my emotions. Whenever I am in difficulty, she would encourage me by telling me stories of how historical heroes conquered their obstacles. Whenever I feel tired and nervous, she would relax me by singing pop songs or telling me interesting and hilarious things. Frankly speaking, I enjoy staying with her. She is really my true friend.

Now, if you share your feelings with a person whom you think is a friend to you, and that person does not pay attention to what you say, this should be able to tell you that this person is indeed not a true friend, because he/she does not care about you.

In short, friends play an important role in our lives. We seriously need to learn how to deal with the different kinds of friends we have, so we can not only protect ourselves from the bad friends, we can also stop wasting time with them.

Roy Armstrong has always liked to write articles that give people the information they want and need.

 

If you have a story to share about a friend, please leave your comments.

 

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