“A friend loves at all times, and a brother (or sister) is born for a time of adversity.” Proverbs 17:17

By: Nancy Abiera

 

Ilove to have friends of all ages, sizes, colors and even status or racial ethnicity. In every season of my life, I have gained so many diverse friends. Some were from our neighborhood, school, workplaces, in Manila, Chicago and all across the globe. I love older friends because I learn a lot of wisdom from their mature perspective. I see them as mentors. I also have friends my age who are like buddies as seem to understand me and most often are compatible with my likes and dislikes. I also have friends much younger than me that help me see quite an interesting and different view point in life.

Friendship is something we invest time, resources and energy. It is truly one of the greatest gifts anyone can have in life. I am so blessed with friends in Chicago and all around the United States as well as Canada with a few friends from Europe too.

These friends are trusted companions who know me so well and love me for who I am, no matter what. It surely takes a lot of work to keep relationships with friends happy and healthy. Oftentimes, our friends are the people who get us through good times and tough times.

Since I am in my Golden years, I somehow appreciated and remembered the theme song of the TV show “Golden Girls” …. “Thank you for being a friend!”

I find friendships as sources of encouragement, comfort, joy and laughter. Friendships appear in many forms as life leads us from childhood to adulthood.

This reminds us that a true friend is indeed a blessing and a gift. Many friendships evolve with the changing of times and seasons: childhood friends; high school or college friends, co-workers, neighbors, etc. sometimes become close to us like family. Some of our friends become even closer than our own families offering love and support.

I traveled to New York last week to be with family and I had a reunion with my female co-workers of almost 40 years ago. Though there were long year gap since we were together, it felt like it was just yesterday. I guess it is not really the length of friendship that matters most but the quality. It was so much fun remising the good old days and catching up on stories thereafter.

I could not believe after so many years, we got connected. We are even planning to do vacation together just for fun. Presently, we meet on zoom every other month just to catch up. We laugh, tease and encourage one another. What a privilege to have this kind of friendship after so many years.

Reflecting back on this experience, I wanted to share some golden nuggets on why our friendship is still so alive using the acronym FRIENDS.

F Faithfulness – This friendship had and has no room for betrayal, lies and deception.

R Reliable – In times of challenges, we continue to lean and rely on each other.

I Inspiration – I sensed that we were inspirations and source of encouragement to one another. E Empathy – This is a key element with friendship as it is the glue that holds us together.

N No Negativity – Joy/ laughter are antidotes to negative stinking thinking.

D Dedication – It showed commitment as we all made time showing our loyalty.

S Solidarity – Our meetings have always been harmonious and fun.

In these seasons of the global challenges and crisis we all are experiencing, we need friends we can reach out to. Perhaps, we have friends out there that need us as well. I encourage you all to call/text/visit or connect with some friends whom you have not connected for quite some time.

Always choose “On A Bright Side” moving further and farther “On A Brightest Side”. I love you readers with the love of the Lord yet the Lord loves you the most. You are blessed. Smile and be a blessing!

Rev. Nancy H. Abiera