jcmor83, Gen-Xer:
“FRIENDS” – HAVE THEM, REALLY”? CAREFUL WITH THAT TITLE —
In my years of living, I have met a lot of people. Whether it was in the course of growing up in my youth, my high school years, and both my military and civilian careers, I have been blessed with meeting an enormous amount of great and not so great people. In all of the years of meeting all of those people, my own personal way of determining and classifying “Friends/Friendships”, is something I have struggled with. Specifically, on the subject of if whether I am right or wrong on how I’ve gone about determining what a friend is to me. Something I guess our own spirit is the guide of. But my spirit always takes me back to where it is rooted in for me and that is the song from the group ‘Whoudini’ – ‘Friends’. Just listen to the key lyrics of the song (“How many of us have them?” and “Some take your kindness for being a fool”) and for me, that is what I share with my kids, on where my concept of the usage of the term ‘FRIEND’ comes from. Not just the song, but from life itself. Along with the EXPERIENCES that I can REFERENCE.
I am a small circle person and the more I read about that now being OK, relieves me. You can’t trust everyone, nor can you call everyone a friend. Because then the meaning that it was meant to serve gets diminished. My youngest daughter and I recently had a conversation where I spoke to her about the term ‘Trust but verify’ and I know she has heard it before, but the next day, she sent me a text, with a GIF that said, ‘Trust but Verify’. I had a moment of great inside joy, knowing that a key piece of wisdom has stuck!! And is sticking. So, with that, I know her assessment of how to determine the difference between ‘Friends’ and acquaintances or people you know, automatically gets processed in “the trust but verify” bubble before assigning the title, ‘FRIEND’. “Pray, meditate have faith and act on positive things for the lightbulb to come on. Thru growth, the light bulb(s) come on.” Know who your true friends are.