On the nature of friendships

I'm one of those people who makes friends easily. I meet, I like, I befriend. That's me. I can honestly say that this has not always been the case because I was an awkward child for much of my early youth, and I was also the kind of kid who found it easier to connect with adults rather than those her own age. Growing up, I knowingly craved a consistency in my friendships that depended on the kind of steadiness that had everything to do with remaining in one place. Moving, I soon learned, invariably meant a threadlike unraveling of my few attachments. This is the reason why for the longest time, I felt inhibited in the degree to which I shared what I considered worthy of knowing about the inner me.

It really wasn't until adulthood however that I grew sufficiently into the kind of awareness that is basic to differentiating the stuff of mere acquaintances from the hallmarks of true friendships; or that I was capable of making the kind of commitment necessary to maintaining a connection with someone over the spans of time, distance and personal growth.

So far in my life, I've been exceptionally lucky in meeting a variety of people who have evidenced for my benefit those traits we all associate with the most meaningful of friendships. As time has gone by however, I find myself holding my older friends closer to the proverbial heart and investing less and less time in seeking new ones to bring into the fold. Since my arrival in Houston nearly five years ago, I've met many wonderful people but I've let few come to mean more to me beyond the confines of a category I refer to as in mutual like.

Somewhere along the way, I began to assume incorrectly that this was how it would be for me from now on and into my old age. That I would live on the sustaining diet of my old guard friendships with a less often and more sporadic spending of myself into newer associations.

To my surprise then, since I began blogging six months ago, I've completely debunked this expectation. I've experienced an exponential growth of comrades-in-blogging-arms. A plethora of worthies who have been, thanks to their intriguing, honest, entertaining, intelligent, thought-provoking and sometimes painful sharing of their lives, fast-tracking their way into my discerning heart. On-line, I've discovered a wealth of people whose sincerity in extending their hand in friendship to me would take so much longer to confirm in the face to face world. I guess that is because you all trustingly expose what is the very best of your inner selves in your writings. Because you give so much without asking in return.

To those of you whom I've also shared of myself with, I hope you can feel how I truly appreciate knowing you. How I try to take you in like measure and with careful consistency, to those normally private places that make me who I am. I want you to know that I keep visiting your blogs as much for the I can't wait to read what you wrote today factor as I do to satisfy the need of wanting to know how you are doing in your lives.

In this virtual world, I will construe such impulses as new hallmarks in this different path towards friendship forging; in this space which I normally reserve for my Leaping Thought Wednesdays, I take the opportunity to thank you for the pleasure I receive and the growth you instigate through the privilege of knowing you.

From this Leaping Thought Wednesday to the next, may all your days be made fuller by those you call your friends.