Monday, January 23, 2012

My thoughts on friendship


Today, as I promised a few days ago, I want to give you a few thoughts on friendship. I believe there probably are more books, movies, articles and etc. produced on the topic. We often judge people by how many friends he or she has. Even folk wisdom states that you can know who the person is by looking at who his/her friends are. I know that there definitely are those who feel better by being alone than surrounded by a circle of friends and prefer solitude for a variety of reasons, but still the majority of us do need friends and under no conditions would agree to live without them. 

How do we make friends

It is quite easy to make friends in childhood. You just spend some time playing with a few kids in a sandbox and you are friends with them. You start hanging around with the kids from neighborhood and your circle of friends expands. Later when kids become teenagers those relationships are sifted out and become stronger. That is the time when we start building friendships on common interests, likes and hobbies. 

At this time opinion of the peers becomes more important than that of the parents. When we start going to universities or begin working this could be another stage of finding new friends. This is a time when most people find their second halves and create families. 

It seems that with time it becomes more and more difficult to find friends as we become more rigid and have fewer people around. It is quite easy to make friends at school or university where you could have hundreds of boys and girls around and much more difficult at work where there could be only five or twenty colleagues.
It takes determination and willingness to go out of your comfort zone and meet new people and make new contacts, but that is necessary if you feel that the old circle of friends has been broken. 

Why do we need friends

Because we are social beings! We want to share, give and get, accept and be accepted. All of us have a deep need to love and to be loved. This becomes a reality in a circle of friends, among those that are close to each other. In this case, a lot of friends may not be a good thing at all. It is difficult to share precious things with crowd. So, do not envy people who seem to have a lot of friends and be very popular. They might be absolutely empty inside and very often feel very lonely. I believe it is best to have two or three very close friends whom you could rely on and share mutual joys and sorrows.  

Random nice thoughts on friendship
 
I would like to finish the post be a few nice thoughts on friendship by unknown authors.

“If you ever lose a close friend, do not be sad, because you have never really had him. It is impossible to lose a true friend”.
“To be a true friend means to notice a tear, which has not appeared in the eyes yet and see a hidden wound in the heart”.
“Everybody is listening when you speak, but only friends hear you”
“Best friends hear you even when you do not say a word”.
“No friendship can be found where there is no humility and amenability”. 

That many thoughts on friendship on the blog “Thought for the day”. Hope you liked them. 

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