"Understanding Who Your Friends Are" 111111111111111111111111

I have been thinking tonight about friends.

We use the term so freely.

As I grow older, I am increasingly aware that true friends are very rare 

and a treasure to be found.

There have been times that I have made a 'friend' only to find, that they were not the "lifetime" kind that I had hoped for.

The kind that when your memory searches the pages turned long ago, you find them there in the laughter and tears 

slipping in and out of your story.

I think sometimes we count many as friends even when we really shouldn't do that, 

to ourselves or to them.

In fact, most of the people that we have called 'friends' are simply acquaintances.

(Case in point; You gotta love Facebook and the loose use of the 'friends list'.)

If I were to whittle my list down to my 'real' friends, I would probably have 3 maybe even 4.

Most of our acquaintances  really weren't meant to be 'lifers' any more than we were meant to be 'lifers' friends to them.

It is sad, that sometimes it takes a lifetime to learn the difference.

True friends are often those willful little creatures who refuse to give up, those special beings who will settle with you through the thick and thin, who will call out to you out of the big blue sky, they are often as unexpected as the rainbow in a misty, sun drenched sky.

They are a rare find; that special lifetime friend.

Acquaintances will come and they will go.

Seasons will change and they will pass.

And so will the many

who once called themselves friends.

I have found a secret though,

as I have grown through the years; a secret that I suppose isn't so secret, once realized.

A true friend is more elusive than we ever dare dream. 

The sooner we realize this truth, the more content we will become.

We free them and ourselves of the expectation they were never meant to fill.

Once you get this.

You get set free.

So, if you happen upon that rare and special person who proves them self true over time;

that wonderful soul who will not  betray nor abandon you in your time of need 

then you will know....

You have found the crown jewel of your life.