I think there are times when I am meeting new people for the first time, and when I do get to talk to them, all of a sudden, it feels like we were always meant to be friends. This doesn’t happen all the time, and its not because the person is charismatic or anything, but it’s just that connection.
I reflect on two friendships: one with a friend closer to my age, and another where the friend is much younger, by about 10 years of difference. Both people are extremely different in personality, and how they approach life. Yet, both are friends that I would text often to talk with. It might also be a good time to state here that both might not think of themselves being good friends to me, but I do actually consider both of them as close friends of mine. Perhaps I am the weird one, that keeps people at arms lengths most of the time, because of the thoughts I have, and the actual introversion that I deal with.
Both of these friends were not friendships that I sought after, meaning I was looking to make friends at that time. Instead, both were relationships that were formed suddenly. I happened to be at a group meeting, at both times, and I took to them in a positive light. I enjoyed their thoughts and their inputs. I enjoyed my interactions with them. There was no transactional benefit, in my own opinion, other than actually just whole heartedly enjoying the time I had with them.
Much like entertainment, friendships can be wildly entertaining for both parties, without a transactional benefit for either one. “My Dinner with Andre” being a movie that looked at the theatre of the abstract, and became in itself a movie that observed that abstract interaction between friends. That enjoyment of conversation is something I treasure deeply with friends. The spontaneity, the randomness. The lack of planning, and the simple presence of existing.
If only there was more time in the world catered for friendships. But enough with wishing, and instead, I will exist for that purpose, to enjoy friendships, as God has given them to me to enjoy.
Thank God for friends, especially those that I never sought, and have received miraculously.