The gift of friendship

As we go through life, we meet a lot of people who cross our path. People say that some of the ones we meet are blessings, and some are lessons. But through this one life we get, some are chosen by our hearts to gift them the limited time we have, and although this time is irreplaceable, we willingly commit to a long friendship, that we choose, without setting conditions.

You suddenly meet someone who starts giving life a meaning, it doesn’t have to be a lover, but someone that adds a special taste to life. It isn’t your relative, neither your life partner, but there is a feeling deep inside that you don’t want to lose this person because somehow, there is a strong bond between you.

Even though life is stronger than your plans, and even though misunderstandings come along, you choose to fight for a friendship that might always be at stake, but miraculously enriches your life.

These people, normally called friends, can make you the center of their priorities. You can imagine that you are in the broken, troubled, stressed, overwhelmed by the everyday load that you can’t keep up to, and they are the sun that passes. But this time, you don’t get to turn around this sun, because it turns around you, to light your dark side, without burning anything. There will be more than one of them, all turning around you. And the beautiful thing about a star or sun is that it burns inside to light everything that its light can touch.

They then become your heroes, because you can ask for help whenever you encounter an obstacle in life, and in return, they lovingly commit to this friendship, and whatever was occupying them, fades when you need help.

You see, it’s so beautiful to find someone worth spending your limited time and countable days with, and it’s more beautiful to have the privilege to be the one who gives hope, and lights the dark side of your friend. And what if sometimes it was the opposite, and that you don’t always light your friend’s path, but sometimes, just sometimes, become the friend of the person whose path you lit.

I’d like to think about the ones who lit my life as a gift from God. They simply make everything seem a little brighter because they are there. And the second bigger gift is when I can reflect the light to them, it never was my light, but I can be the medium to get it to them. Because armed with enough love, you can make hope flourish in your loved ones’ hearts. Believe me, there is no greater joy than to know that the smiles they have, were there because of you.

Joe J. El Housseini