friendships

Friendships to me are one of the most valuable treasures in life. You have to believe that people are important and that it is a need that you have. Some people stay away from these relationships. They fear being hurt, lack of trust in another person,loosing some control, not confident in relating and expressing to people.Iknow that I would feel an EMPTYNESS in my life without having friends. as a child, I had a few friends. As i got older,I became less guarded and learned a number of things about friendships. SOMETIMES i would have to reach out vs waiting for someone to reach out to start a conversation let alone work on developing,and creating relationships that i considered as friends. I think we all have people that we see as an acquaintance, but not necessarlly seen as a friend. Friends come in all sizes,different social,racial,religious,economical and beliefs. to be a true friend means being there for each other in bad vs good times. willingness to accept that it's ok to have different viewpoints about issues. being willing to be honest,but not cruel when sharing concerns or different opinions. the amount of friends is not as important as the depth,compassion,honesty,for another person even it's just one person. Today, I shared a cup of hot tea with terry, who i consider to be a friend. we talked about her father's recent death ,last week. She usually hates to show tears or any other emotions especially anger and apologizes for having shown some of these emotions. we both have lost our parents. the arms of comfort were extended as well as honest love and concern to my friend as she has done so for me with my loss of my 1st. husband and both of my parents. as you are reading this post, do you have a special person you title as a friend. how do you maintain that relationship, and feel it's true?