True Friendships

I love true friendships.

You know the kind...where iron can sharpen iron.

The kind where love, however imperfect, is the foundation.

The kind of friendships where the dialog can be open...can even be hard...yet you can remain secure in the love of the other person.

The kind where you know they won't shut you down or close you off.

The kind where there is a freedom to express differences of thought and opinion and there is acceptance anyway.

The kind where it is OK to not always like...or agree with...what the other one is saying.

The kind where there is a willingness to hear hard things...and forgiveness offered when one gets hurt. I say "when" because it is guaranteed...if the friendship is real...there will eventually be some hurts.

I guess that...maybe...the true test of a friendship is what happens when hard things ARE said. Will it survive? Or will it die? True friends work through things, no matter how it is. Isn't that what true love does? Someone who truly loves you sticks by you, even when they don't happen to "like" you for a while. *smile*

I like true friendships.

I like "real" friendships.

The ones where I don't have to pretend to be anything other than what I am.

The kind where I am not expected to be anything other than what I am.

The kind that will love me where I am, yet challenge me to grow.

The kind where I can be real without fear of reprisal.

The kind where I can trust the other person when they call me on my "stuff".

I have worked through many hard things with the help of true friends. I have also been not nearly as good of a friend as I wish I could have been. I have made MANY mistakes...and I am grateful for the friends who stuck by me anyway...who loved me anyway...and who chose to be there for me as I floundered and tried to find my way.

I am so imperfect. VERY imperfect. If true friendships were based upon perfection...I would have ZERO friends...NONE! Thankfully, true friendships, real friendships, are based on love...not perfection.