Friendship

Every man passes his life in the search after friendship.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson 

One of the secret, seldom shared wishes I have for my retirement is to make new friends while keeping the old ones. While I was in the working world I had many acquaintances, but few real friends.  Being a friend requires a lot of maintenance and I was often neglectful in that area.  I vowed that when I retired I would try to do a better job of being a friend.

I have more trouble it seems in keeping up with old friends than in making new ones. Distance makes it more difficult to keep in touch.  E-mails are my usual means of communicating with far away friends, but they lack a certain warmth and spontaneity that face to face contact has. No longer sharing common activities also makes it difficult to find meaningful things to say to old friends. I wonder sometimes if it wouldn't be better to stop trying to keep the friendships alive and just be content with happy memories.  

I have been very fortunate to find a number of people in my new life that I consider friends. We have common interests (reading and knitting and crocheting, for example) and proximity allows us to meet more frequently.  Today, I unexpectedly met with a friend I hadn't seen in a few months. We have both been busy with family matters and never seemed to be in the same place at the same time.  It was lovely to see her and have the chance to chat and catch up on all our doings.  She is a gentle person who brings out the best in me.  I have smiled all day today just thinking about our meeting.  Friendship is good for the soul.