Friendship- the treasure of my life

23 of March: Tears of happiness and appreciation

Through the passage of time, we will realize who really care about us. That's love. That's friendship.

Distance has never been a barrier of our friendship. We maybe talk once in a while, meet up once in several months, pursue very different interests in life. It seems that it is difficult to set a meeting for us and there might come some assumptions that we are not close friends for the lack of closeness. For the time being, I no longer take people's judgment or bias seriously, yet respect the diversity of human. In my case, I take pride in my friendship which is invaluable and meaningful to me and to my own life. Though there is no standard to evaluate these sorts of abstract concepts, I would call it "quality relationships" when we spend our quality time on the friendship and acquire the sense of joy, empathy and love in every second.

There is no best or worse friends to me. I am close to different friends in different way, but there are only certain "treasured friends" that I could share most of my inner thoughts. Here I feel happy and appretiative to life for the gift I get from the universe that is those great people. Once I set a meeting or announce them that I am coming back to see you, there will be no postponement or any reasons for their absence. We just met again yesterday evening and overnight as if there had not been any separation. We shared what we are learning at work, what we aspire to do, what interests us over the growing journey. We are getting to the phase of work immersion that means we are exposed to more challenges in the job market and access to new working styles and mindsets ever. We gradually get acquainted to the high-level job doers, get adapted to the hardships of contract workers, and get ourselves more mature over time. The fields of our work and concerns include marketing, sales, logistics, technology, information security, education, spirituality, psychology, which are really distinct, but how we get deeper understanding of life is similar. We are human with the similarly complex emotions and frequently encounter comlex issues from all walk of life.

My friends never expect me to be anyone which is probably a common thing in many relationships ranging from family to school affairs. It is mostly assumed that because we love each other and want "the ones" to be better as the way we want, we try to draw out certain paths or characteristics that need achieving by our lovers. Unfortunately, love is about truly caring rather than pushing or expecting. I care for you because I love the way you are. The more I wish to change you just to satisfy me instead of to make the relationships grow, the more repetitive patterns you take, even resistant actions against my wish. As long as we care about each others, we can be emotionally connected, regardless of all obstacles.

I am an emotional person. I like crying as it is a way of engaging in empathetic feelings and expressing love. Whenever I go to stay in somewhere new in which I meet nice people and learn great lessons in the land, it is too difficult to say goodbye to all. But I have never cried to say goodbye to my close friends until today. I slept only 3 hours after the excursion around Hanoi, my friend bought bread for my breakfast and brought me to the bus station. I was about to sleep throughout the way to the airport, I can't stop thinking of the moments we had together yesterday, thinking of my beloved friends. It was my first time to be in tears of happiness, not of sadness or farewell. It was how we are truly connected and what we mean to each other that moved me to cry. I feel grateful and thankful to my friends who have been always next to me no matter what happens and how we are constantly changing. That's true friendship, a treasure of life.

"But let there be the spaces in your togetherness

And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another, but make not a bond of love:

Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.

Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf

Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone

Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.

For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.

And stand together yet not too near together:

For the pillars of the temple stand apart,

And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow."

-The Prophet-