The article below the first divider line, and the picture with the message in it, were on Facebook a while back. I felt that the message was a very important one, and one that needed to be expounded upon. What I wrote is below the divider line.
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There comes a point in your life when you realize who really matters, who never did, and who always will. When other people treat you poorly, walk away, smile, and keep being YOU. Don’t ever let someone else’s bitterness change the person you are.
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Long time friends are friends that have been with you for many years, and are always there for you. Like I have heard people say, “A Good Friend will visit you in jail, but a Best Friend will stay with you in jail.”
Some friends have been with you ever since you can remember what friends were all about. They build you up, and you learn from them constantly. They also let you know when you are doing things that are not so nice. Even though what they tell you may hurt, you listen to them, because you know that they are telling you whatever it is for your own good and with love in their hearts. They only want what is best for you. You know without a shadow of a doubt that they were put in your life for a reason. The love that you have between you is like the love I wrote about in the poem below.
THE GROWING LOVE
There is a special kind of love.
You find it among close friends.
This is called a growing love,
The kind that never ends.
Sometimes you think it’s gone away.
But it’s only taking a rest.
This love is here to stay.
It will out stand every test.
It starts out very small,
Like the little buds in spring.
But then it covers all,
Like a Mama bird and her babies with her wings.
With Love,
Bonnie Jean
Here is a poem about friends and loved ones that I wrote many years ago.
FRIENDS AND LOVED ONES
Friends are people who, to you, are near;
Loved ones are people who, to you, are dear
Friends may be loved ones and loved ones may be friends
But with both your love you give and theirs you win
You are a friend and a loved one too
I hope my love is shown to you
You helped me with music and music is dear
For when the heart is sad, music brings it good cheer
Music has helped me and helped you too
So when I hear it or play it I will think of you
Although sometimes we will be far away
The thought of you will never go away
I will never forget you wherever I go
I will send you letters so this you will know
Bonnie Jean
August 20 1972
Below is yet another poem I wrote about friendship. I hope that these three poems have made it clear that we all need friends.
FRIENDSHIP
F un being together
R egardless of the weather
I nterested in similar things
E njoying the happiness that it brings
N eeds are met in a special way
D oing for each other along the way
S tories and secrets easily share
H earts poured out because they care
I nspiration you give and take
P eace is the product that you make
And when you see what is here,
It’s the best thing anywhere.
For everybody needs to have friendship,
No matter how many people are in their kinship.
Bonnie Jean
July 8, 1991
Another type of friends are the ones that are usually referred to as “Good Weather Friends”. This means that they are only there when things are going good for you. As soon as things start going south, they take off. Some of them may even be the reason why things are not going very well. It isn’t until after they have left, and are no longer in the picture that you realize why they were in your life to start with. They were in your life to teach you a valuable life lesson, to show you that not all people are good, and not all people can be trusted. Usually these “friends” ( if you want to continue to call them that) are not in your life very long. You realize that when the going became rough, they also got going, right out of your life. They didn’t want to stay around and suffer with you through the bad times. So, in essence, their staying only a short time was a good thing.
There are some times when a person is only in our lives, less than or a little over a year, and they pass away. When this happens, especially to an infant, we can’t help but to wonder why. Then we realize that it was to teach us to love and make attachments to people in a short time. In other words, to take a chance, that it is going to make a difference for us. And once the passing has occurred, we learn how to accept and handle the different stages of grief. In that lesson we learn that different people handle things in different ways and at different speeds. So this is an instance where the person being in our life only for a short time was good for us.
When we move to a new neighborhood, whether it is close to us, or far away from our current residence, we have to exhibit different qualities. These qualities include having courage, having self respect, and having the willingness to make the first step to meet the new neighbors. However, if the neighbor makes the first move to welcome us to the neighborhood, we have to exhibit the same qualities to accept their good will. The people may end up being our new best friends. Even if we only stay in that neighborhood a few years, in that short time we gained a new friend. In everything that we do, we grow and learn new things. The people that are in our lives help us to accomplish the growth that we gain.
We are the only one that has the ability to figure out just why a particular person is or was in our life. Is or was this person in our life to teach us humility and how to show compassion for someone, or to teach us not to be so trusting in people that may be taking us for a spin, so to speak? It’s all up to us individually to figure it out. We have to do our best to have a level head about our decisions, and to live with the decision that we make..
