The beauty of lasting friendships

Lasting friendships are some of the most beautiful and grounding relationships we can ever have. They ask for nothing. They seek nothing. They are just there for us when we need them without questions, without demand. They wait for us when we take off on paths different from theirs. When we go off on journeys of our own.

I have a few friends that have been in my life for many years. The degree of our friendships coming and going over the years as and when we need each other. We know we are there for each other no matter what, no matter when, no matter how. And the beauty of these relationships is that we do not need to crowd each other. Do not need to be in each other’s physical space all the time. But trust that we are always present for each other when the time is right again.

We have an understanding that goes beyond the physical and is locked in a place where we know each other on a level that is almost indescribable. These friends are near and dear to my heart as they are a part of me as I am a part of them.

I am reminded of the freedom and trust of these relationships because I met a friend last night. A friend who was a constant in my life when we lived in France. A friend who found me when I needed to be found. Who stuck with me and helped me through a very difficult time in my life. A friend who did not judge. Does not judge but was there whenever I needed her. We had not seen each other in 6 and a half years and had not spoken to each other during that time frame either. But for some reason our paths intersected again last night. Bringing us back together in a country that is not our own.

And when we met each other it was like we had seen each other every day. As if time had stood still but gone on at the same time. We stepped right back into the girlfriends we were some 6 and half years before. Bringing each other up to date on where we had left off without the need to fill in all the details because those details did not really matter to us. Grateful for the opportunity to be in each other’s presence for a fleeting few hours. But those hours were enough to fill us up again. To remind us of how precious good, lasting and enduring friendships really are. How our souls need to be reconnected from time to time in a physical way.

Last night I was reminded these special friendships ground us. Help us to remember who we are, were and will be. They provide us with compasses on where we are in our lives by bringing us back to people who we know will always have our backs. Will always love us no matter what. Will always have a special place in our hearts. Who are able to accept that sometimes life will take us on very different paths and are willing to let go of the physical friendship until the time our paths are meant to reconnect. Picking up where we left off without questions or regret.

We talked, laughed, commiserated, and walked back down memory lane from time to time – two women who have grown in the 6 and a half years but yet remained the same at the core. At the place of the heart.

I love my near and dear friends. The ones who demand nothing from me. Seek nothing from me. Except for me to be happy and to know I hold a special place in their hearts as they do mine.

We parted last night hugging each other over and over again. Promising to meet again sometime soon. Hopefully sooner than 6 and a half years and hopefully with more time. Both departing with me being grateful for fate bringing us back together in a country that is not our own. But giving us time nonetheless to remember how key it is to let in those who have our best interests at heart. Knowing that those friendships will never let us down. Will never turn their backs on us. They may change and grow and sometimes mellow out but at the core they are our core who keep us grounded, rooted in the knowledge we never walk this earth plane alone.

In total and utter gratitude for the lasting, enduring, shaping, trusting, friendships that seek nothing, demand nothing but remain as constants in our spiritual inner lives. Namaste to my beautiful friend Beatrice Roynard, my French sister, mon amie tres bonne.

My only regret is that we did not take a photograph together but am grateful to know I have the picture of us forever etched in my heart. Safe journey until we meet again.