Education, SBoentaran

Treasuring Friendship

Greetings. Unlike regular mornings, I woke up without an alarm clock that Sunday morning. Grateful for a good sleep, I rolled over to reach my phone on the bedside. My Sunday morning ritual was about to start, making calls to my love ones far away from where I am, when I realized that my calf was a bit sore. It must be the high heel from the night before.

Yes, I had a good time going out with my dear friend who's visiting from Bali, and four other friends that night. All six of us went to a nice bistro in the neighborhood where the owner and waiter is also a friend. It's always nice to liven up the time with good friends, especially when one of them came so far away from home.

With good food and drinks to fuel up conversations, time was running fast and we had to rush to a theater to watch The Maids, one of Jean Genet controversial plays. Genet is a controversial person himself. In The Maids he highlighted, with his own interpretation, law and order, good and bad, gender fluidity, dominance and submissions.

It was quite an interesting and provoking play actually, although it's somewhat difficult for me to fully digest it. Well, I had to confess that I was there to celebrate my friendship, not so much to watch and enjoy the play.

My friend from Bali and I have been in contact since early 90's. We shared the same office building, while working for different companies. Over the years our friendship has grown and become stronger. No matter what happen around us, we keep contacting each other, exchanging ideas, nurturing our friendship, and most importantly we are always there for each other.

There are certainly people that I have known much longer than her, but they do not have that strong tie to me. The length of a friendship is seemingly not something that defines the beauty of the relationship. It is the quality that matter. Distance does not really matter, especially nowadays, as we can always communicate when we need to, either by phone, text message, email, YM or all of them.

When I look back, I probably know a lot of people, but there are no more than a number of people who will drop everything in the world for me, and at the same time I am also willing to do the same for them. A dear friend who recently passed away, was one of them. On his death bed, he arranged not to inform me on his death until his body was ready to be lowered, despite the fact that he spent almost the whole last 3 days of his life to chat with me (with plenty of hint that he is going...). He did not want me to fly and visit him, because I was just off my heart monitor and was not advised to fly. That's how unselfish he was...

Names started flashing in my mind, including those who've gone already. Friends come and go naturally, and it's no one fault, because we evolve and not everyone evolves at the same pace and directions with us.

Then I think of my new friend, so new that I have not even seen him in person. Not only that he gave me full support and confidence to start my initial writing, but he had also walked me through the steps to start a new thing, blogging.

When someone out there is ready to enrich you, reach out for you, laugh with you, cry with you, assure you, comfort you, broaden your horizon, sometime as simple as listen to your grunts, that is when he or she becomes your friend, and you will seek the opportunity to reciprocate as much as you have received, even more.

Friendship needs to be nurtured over time, and one need to cherish the treasure. Life is short, and one may cross path with us no more than once during our lifetime. Take action before they're gone.

, Diperbarui: April 19, 2008.

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