Why Are We Friends?

It's weird how friendships can be very strong for a season of life and then seemingly evaporate into nearly non-existence. The people I once worked with, joked with, conversed with, and shared several hours of life with on a daily basis I no longer see, hear from, or even think about except for occasional memories or posts that might pop up in a social media feed. Some of those co-workers transferred to other facilities, some retired before I did, and some are still working and it was my retirement that seems to have ended our common connection.

I really have no past church connections. I have had a few attempts at keeping in touch, but again, the commonality of a particular church or of how to practice our Christianity no longer exists so neither do our relationships.

Over the decades, I haven't kept in touch with any of my classmates that were once my buddies, my tribe during my youthful years. I am greatly pleased to have renewed a precious few of those old relationships in recent years. Our lives are very different, but we have some common roots, common memories, and shared life values.

For the most part, I still think of the people of my past with fond memories and would love to catch up on life over a coffee or beer. I think it's cool that our life paths intersected for a period of time and would like to know how things are on their current paths. Sometimes those path divergences were difficult ones and caused by difficult times or decisions. Other times they may have been joyous ones where everybody celebrated, cried, hugged, and wished each other well as we parted and one of us set off on a new journey.

I have a philosophy on friendships. Friendship aren't always reciprocal. Just because I consider you to be my friend doesn't mean that you have to consider me to be your friend. I'm sure there are people that I think of as friends that only think of me as an old acquaintance, and vice versa. It's just the way it is. Mutual friendships are definitely the best, but even those might only last for a particular season of life.

These are just thoughts in my head this morning.
If we have been friends in the past, chances are I still think of you as my friend. 
Just wanted you to know that.

John