Journey through with Friends

On my journey through life, I've meet lots of people and I stress that word lots. Some have greatly impacted my life, some in good ways, and others in bad ways and some well they just haven't made a difference at all. In fact I bet there are several that never even registered in my mind.

A smart woman (my sister, don't tell her I called her smart, I'll never hear the last of it) once said to me always surround yourself with people that add value to your life, and it was good advice. I don't have lots of friends but the few I do have are invaluable. Most times I find any difficulties I encounter are made easier by the people around me. I always wondered what the best way to define friends was, then on an ordinary day I had a light bulb moment and it came to me. They are the ones I turn to when I’m happy, sad, heart broken, confused and so many more emotions I don't wish to add. Unlike love at first site I never know if I’m going to be friends with everyone I meet and most times I’m not even thinking about assessing them to add to my list of indispensables (that’s what I call my group of friends), it just sort of happens, the trip between when I met them to when they become a friend is something I never quite think to make a record of; somewhere down the line I find myself referring to them as a friend and the dye is set.

Take my siblings for one, I mean its one thing to be family and its something else entirely to be friends, I’m friends with a few of my siblings, yes not all of them, that one surprised me too. I find that with some of them, if we weren’t related, I wouldn’t even like them as a person.  Not a lot of my friends are the same as me, in reality most of them differ from me in character but I think that’s part of the appeal, they make up for were I fall short. 

My friends know me, they know my looks, and they know my smiles, sometimes they can even read my mind.  They even know my flaws, they see my inadequacies but more importantly they see my value, even values I never noticed in myself, they hold a mirror up to my face and my reflection through their eyes is wonderful to look at, its like my own personal cheerleading squad, bringing with them a journey worth taking, a friendship worth having, a life worth celebrating.  If their existence in my journey through life make if easier to travel through it, then I wouldn’t want to take that journey with out them.