How do you know who your REAL friends are?
I have heard it said many times that you can count your true friends in life on the fingers of one hand. In some ways I believe this to be absolutely true and in other ways I wonder about this.
In cyberspace we can have zillions of friends can’t we? Facebook will tell us we have hundreds and in some cases thousands of friends. Famous people have hundreds of thousands of “friends.” This tells me that the term friends is getting a little bit mottled…in other words it is shaded in a variety of ways. So how do we know who our real friends are?
Well let me tell you about my best friend. His name is Conor. Conor always greets me with a smile and makes me feel that he is genuinely happy to see me. He is totally transparent. If he has something on his mind, he is straight up about it. He is oblivious to my weaknesses and does not seem to judge me in any way. When I am unkind to him, he is quick to forgive. He simply appreciates me for who I am.
His loyalty is unquestionable. If I am sad, he simply makes an effort to comfort me and seems genuinely upset that I’m sad. If I am busy, he doesn’t get upset with me, he simply lets me do what I’ve got to do, although he will check in on me every now and then just to see if I’m still around, and let me know that if things lighten up for me and I want to hang out with him that would be cool.
When we are spending time together, he is just as happy if we are sitting quietly or engaging in an activity. Heaven forbid if someone tries to harm me physically, because he is at my defense in a heartbeat. If I’m not around, he keeps an eye on things.
Conor is my 10-year old collie. I aspire to be the kind of friend he is. The point is, your best friends in life probably resemble Conor. They are people who appreciate you for who you are, would be there for you in a heartbeat, are loyal to you and would come to your defense, share openly with you how they are feeling, and just enjoy being with you.
This is how you can tell who your friends are! If you have a best friend you want to give some props to, share it with our readers.
