Friendship

One of the greatest gifts in my life is the gift of the wonderful friendships I enjoy.  I moved from my birthplace at twenty-six years old, so started developing geographically diverse friendships at an early age.  Then I worked for a global company, so had the opportunity to develop even more geographically diverse friendships.

I started running at twenty-seven, and switched to race walking at forty-four, so opened another door to a world of new friends.

I have always felt comfortable with people of many ages, so the ages of my friends span from people in their twenties to people in their nineties.  I need some teenage and child friends I guess.

One of the things I love most about my friends is how different they are.  My friends come from different ethnicities, different geographies, different cultures, different points on the political spectrum, different religions, different genders, different world views.  But they are all my friends.

I sometimes find myself wondering how I find it so easy to be friends with people who are so different from me in different ways.  And the answer is simple.  They are all like me in different ways.  And my friendship with each person is based on what we share, not on what we do not share.

I'm very grateful that I was raised to look for common ground with everyone I meet.  That search for commonality is what gives me the base to build all these diverse friendships.

I'm also grateful that I was raised to not judge people.  The suspension of judgement allowed me to keep trying to find common ground even when it was not readily apparent.

My diverse group of friends have helped me develop a more inclusive world view.  I may disagree wholeheartedly on certain subjects with certain people, but on other subjects, we are in perfect alignment.  That alignment makes me really examine those subjects on which we disagree so vehemently. I may never agree, but I try to understand what informs their position.

I believe we are all different and believe and value different things for a reason.  I think that the acceptance and even celebration of our differences can lead to self-improvement, growth, and tolerance.

I have said before in my posts, it is hard to hate a group when you love someone in that group.  By making friends that embrace diversity, it is hard to negate entire groups through bigotry or prejudice.

As I look in any face, I can see the similarity of that face with the face of a friend, so I see a new potential friend.  And that is awesome.

On this #friendsday; I wish for you the gift of a great diversity of friends.  I hope you can find common ground with a multitude of people, and can be enriched by those diverse people's gifts.

Friendship is a balm for a wounded soul, nourishment for a hungry soul, comfort for a grieving soul.

Friendships form a safety net to catch us when the difficult times in life trip us up.  Friendship are the crayons in the coloring book of life.

It is never to late to add more crayons to your collection.  I can promise you, the more colorfully you paint your life, the more enriching and rewarding it will be.