Travelling for our friends

Last night I was reading Vincent Sherlock's daily Lenten reflection. The final thought of his reflection was 'how far will we travel for our friends?'

This really got me thinking about friendship and that simple question put by Fr. Vincent has inspired me to write this post. Friendship is a two way relationship. We can be the best friend possible to somebody but unless they return the gesture there cannot be a real friendship. Two friends in a friendship should be equal. The jobs which they do may be different as might some of their interests. This does not mean that one friend should look down on the other just cause they get paid more etc. Friends should look at each other with equal eyes.

When I read the last line of Fr. Vincent's reflection the first thing I thought was that it can be very difficult to travel with our friends at times especially when they don't treat you the same way as you treat them. We are all human and in order to survive we need to know that we can turn to our friends if we are in trouble or need support. Time to time we all can get so wrapped up in our lives and what is going on for us that we can forget about others. Life gets in on us, we don't want to talk to anyone so we won't answer the phone or reply to messages we receive. But we need to think of others and how our lack of response can hurt a friend. We don't know what is going on for somebody else, they might be making contact because they just need company. Being a friend to another when we are going through times of stress or sorrow is by no means an easy task. When life is getting us down we don't care much for anything or anyone. Make a conscious decision on a good day that when you are having a bad day that you won't block out the world. Again easier said than done. We can make the decision but it is easy to go back to our usual way of coping on a bad day. Consciously deciding not to 'turn in on yourself' and sticking to this decision on a bad day might also help you on those darker days. Being with friends can take us out of ourselves which in turn can help us look at things differently. Friends can remind us of the things that matter in life. If you are having a bad day and don't wanna talk about deep emotional stuff or can't be a listening ear to your friends troubles just tell them. A real friend will understand where you are coming from and accept your wishes.

So remember that you can travel with your friends on their journey of life. The distance one is willing to travel for a friend comes down to how they are treated by that friend. It is hard to travel for a friend whom you get nothing from in return.