I’ve been thinking a lot lately about friends and how we get them. Some slip ever so gently into our lives and we feel like we’ve know them our whole life. Others are slow to get to know but oh so worth the effort if we get the momentum going. Then there are friends who are dear but needy (of course we all are that way to a certain extent) and your friendship becomes a lifeboat in a sea of their crisis.
Whatever kind of friends you’ve had, no matter how you cut it, you’ve left them in your old town, One of the difficulties of moving to a new community is to find those solid friends. So often we plop into a community where people are “full up” with relationships. They don’t need any new relationships. Or, possibly the people we meet are so stressed out and busy that they don’t have an inch to give. Either way, it becomes demoralizing to try and find one person who will be our friend. Yes, it does sound pathetic to have to hunt down a friend or two.
I’ve lived in many cities and towns and each area had its challenges in meeting people. But I can say I’ve always found someone I could label “friend” But I know as our culture is turning more technical, people contact is dwindling. Casual conversations such as visiting with the bank teller, things we used to take for granted just don’t happen anymore. All the more reason we should as a society try to be alert to the “people factor”.
As we go through our day I hope we can pay attention to people we run into on a casual basis. Maybe that annoying woman who talks too much at the hair salon is a newcomer and needs a friend or two. Maybe that preschool parent who delays you while you pick up your daughter might be lonely. There’s a whole missing human element in our modern culture.
My challenge to myself and my readers is this question: Do we have any more room for friends? Squeezing in one extra new relationship might just suprise us. Life is elastic and when we reach out, life has a way of fitting as it stretches around us. Its the principle of ,”give and it will be give to you, pressed down.” This isn’t just referring to money. It also works for time and effort.
I’m thankful for those who stretched when I was a newcomer. I’d like to return the favor.
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