On this day, we are reminded that we need to rejuvenate our friendship and keep it up for the whole life. We know that a friend is one who knows and loves us anyway, beyond his self interests. We must remember the greatest gift is not found in a store nor under a tree, but in the hearts of true friends. Factually, who finds a faithful friend, finds a treasure.
You know! Your friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you. What is a friend? That is a single soul dwelling in two bodies. Albert Camus says , “ Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend.” On this day, very profoundly, we remember the statement by Abraham Lincoln, “The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.” You must hold your true friend with both your hands. A faithful friend is the medicine of life. Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same – they are our friends.
Claude Mermet advises us, “Friends are like melons; shall I tell you why? To find one good you must one hundred try.” Actually, friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil. This relationship needs no words to be defined. It comes out of heart without any discrimination of the genders. Your sincere friends are the sunshine in your life. They are the best mirror of your life. Once the sentiments of friendship develop with some one, you will accept him/her in totality without looking in the bad qualities he/she has. You can try to improve in due course of time but silently, without hurting your friend. A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out. They are needed both for joy and for sorrow. Friendship doubles our joy and divides our grief.
A friend hears the song in your heart and will sing it to you when your memory fails. You must enhance the numbers of your friends. Enhance your social networking and count your age with friends but not with years. Whenever you do it, whenever you plant a seed of friendship, you will reap a bouquet of happiness. You will have to be reciprocal also. We need to keep our friends as misers do their treasure, because of all the things granted us by wisdom, none is greater or better than friendship. It makes your prosperity more brilliant, and lightens adversity by dividing and sharing it.
In a comparison of personal relationships, friendship is considered to be closer, although there is a range of degrees of intimacy in both friendships and personal relationship. In order to have a true friendship with someone one must have complete honesty, truth and trust. Also, friends do things for each other without expectation of repayment. If a friend is about to do something wrong, one should not compromise one’s morals. One should explain what is wrong about the action, and help one’s friend understand what is right.
You have different kinds of relationships with different people. Your friendship can be qualified as workplace relationships of long standing, friendship with your neighbors with whom you share an occasional meal and visit, and so on. Enhancement of emotions in friendship does not debar physical contact between friends and friends, whether or not of the same sex, will embrace, sometimes kiss and walk in public with their arms around each other, or arm-in-arm, or hand-in-hand.
Friendship is a form of respect, not born out of fear or superiority. Friends are people who are equal in most standards, but still respect each other irrespective of their attributes or shortcomings.
If we go through the examples in our history, we find that to our forefathers, friendship seemed the happiest and most fully human of all loves; the crown of life and the school of virtue. But the modern world, in comparison, ignores it. We admit of course that besides a wife and family a man needs a few ‘friends’. But the very tone of the admission, and the sort of acquaintanceships which those who make it would describe as ‘friendships’, show clearly that what they are talking about has very little to do with that relationship which they classified among the virtues. ”
If we go through the different stages in the process of our growing up, we find that friendships come after parental bonding. In the intervening period between the end of early childhood and the onset of full adulthood, friendships are often the most important relationships in the emotional life of the adolescent, and are often more intense than relationships later in life. However making friends seems to trouble lots of people; having no friends can be emotionally damaging in some cases. Friendships play a key role in suicidal thoughts of girls.
In course of time, our relationships with friends have different names like acquaintance when a friend is there, but sharing of emotional ties isn’t present. An example would be a coworker with whom you enjoy eating lunch or having coffee, but would not look to for emotional support. We have Best friend (or close friend), a person(s) with whom someone shares extremely strong interpersonal ties with as a friend. We do classify our friend as BFF (“Best Friend Forever”). This term has been originally coined on the internet and used primarily in the USA by women to describe a girl friend or close best friend. Amongst our friends, we do have blood brother or blood sister to whom we may refer as related by birth, or a circle of friends who swear loyalty by mingling the blood of each member together.
We call our friends as our buddies. In the USA, males often refer to each other as “buddies”, for example, introducing a male friend as their “buddy”, or a circle of male friends as “buddies”. Sometime we see Casual relationship or “Friends with benefits”: the sexual or near-sexual and emotional relationship between two people who don’t expect or demand to share a formal romantic relationship.
In friendship, Comrade means “ally”, “friend”, or “colleague” in a military or (usually) left-wing political connotation. This is the feeling of affinity that draws people together in time of war or when people have a mutual enemy or even a common goal.
With the women attending schools more and as their presence in the workplace increased, the segregated friendship dynamic was altered, and cross-sex friendships began to increase. Cross-sex friendship is one that is defined by a person having a friend of the opposite sex: a male who has a female friend, or a female who has a male friend. Historically cross-sex friendships have been rare. This is caused by the fact that often men would labor in order to support themselves and their family, while women stayed at home and took care of the housework and children. The lack of contact led to men forming friendships exclusively with their colleagues, and women forming friendships with other stay at home mothers.
We do have Imaginary friends also. They are non-physical friends created by a child. It may be seen as typical childhood behavior. The friend may or may not be human, and commonly serves a protective purpose. Now, we have Internet friendship: a form of friendship or romance which takes place over the Internet. Sometime we call our friends as our Mate. In the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, a group of friends often refer to each other as ‘mates’, for example, introducing a male friend as their “mate”, or a circle of male friends as “mates”. In the UK, as well as Australia, this term has begun to be taken up by women as well as men. Non-personal friendship is at times used for political purposes to describe relations between states or peoples.
There are Pen pals, people who have a relationship via postal correspondence. They may or may not have met each other in person and may share either love, friendship, or simply an acquaintance between each other. You may have Roommate friend who is a person who shares a room or apartment (flat) with another person but may or may not share a familial or romantic relationship. The term “Soulmate” is given to someone who is considered the ultimate, true, and eternal half of the other’s soul, in which the two are now and forever meant to be together.
Whatsoever we may call our friendship, but it is true that good friendships enhance an individual’s sense of happiness and overall well-being. Strong social supports improve your prospects for good health and longevity. Conversely, it has been shown that loneliness and lack of social supports are linked to an increased risk of heart disease, viral infections, and cancer as well as higher mortality rates.
Good friends encourage their friends to lead more healthy lifestyles. They encourage their friends to seek help and access services, when needed. They enhance their friend’s coping skills in dealing with illness and other health problems.
We witness friendship as a type of interpersonal relationship is found also among animals of higher intelligence, such as the higher mammals and some birds. Cross-species friendships are common between humans and domestic animals. Less common but noteworthy are friendships between an animal and another animal of a different species, such as a dog and cat.
But your smile makes it all alright.
I’m so glad that you’re my friend.
I know our friendship will never end.”
– Robert Alan
Wherever be, we may enhance our friendship and for that, if we may have to sacrifice some of our interests, we must think over for the sake of our relationship.
Be Happy – Be Friend to Every One.