Friendship defined: Friendship is a term used to denote co-operative and supportive behaviour between two or more humans. This article focuses on the notion specific to interpersonal relationships. In this sense, the term connotes a relationship which involves knowledge, esteem, and affection. (Wikipedia)
So what is friendship really all about?  When I think about the word friendship, I remember the people I care about, and  the people who care about me.  It’s that simple.  For me friendship does not require constant companionship and constant communication.  Real friends remain real friends no matter how far they may be, no matter how busy you both are.  When  you think about each other, you remember all the nice things about being real friends.   I have a lot of friends,  too many to name them all.  But real friends… that’s entirely a different thing.  My real friends are too few.  But they are genuine, they are real.  It’s nice to know that we have friends who are there for us when we need them.  It’s nice to have friends around to have some fun every now and then.  But that’s not what real friendship is just all about.  It’s all about being able to being comfortable being just yourself when you’re with them, no matter how long you haven’t been together, no matter how far from each other you may have been.   It’s about being able to open up and talk about anything that comes up in your thoughts, and enjoying every single moment of it even after the moments together have passed. 

“Friendship is the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words.”—George Eliot [Mary Ann Evans] (1819-1880), novelist

That, my friends, is what real friendship is all about.

My daughter and I went to the grocery store this afternoon.  On our way out, with all the stuff we bought on both hands, a lady approached us and began telling us that  her bag was slashed and she needed some coins for transportation to get home. She explained that her wallet was taken, and even her ATM card was gone, and pointed to the bag which she clutched between her arms. I noticed the slash she was talking about and  I couldn’t help feeling sorry for the lady, and immediately pulled out money from my pocket and handed it to her.  Just as we walked away from the lady, a little boy in the street who was running around playing chase with other little boys approached us and asked for some coins too.  I told the boy to go away and he continued playing chase with his friends.  My daughter who had been quietly observing me began asking me why I gave the lady some money and refused the little boy who asked for money too.  I had to explain to her the difference between the lady and the little boy. 

It isn’t a habit of mine to give alms to just about every beggar who approaches me for alms.   In this country, you find a beggar in almost every corner of the streets.  Some of them, they say, are members of syndicates who hire little children to beg for alms and require these kids to collect and submit to them a certain amount after a whole day of begging.  There was even a time when my fiancé and I were buying from a store near our house when a familiar old lady walked in and approached the counter to have a bag full of coins changed to bills.   I was so amazed to realize that the old lady was one of the beggars I saw on the bridge on our way home everyday!

There are times, though, when I refuse a beggar and get that certain feeling that I should have given that beggar something.  It’s like a gut feeling within you, when you feel that this person is genuinely in need of a few coins from anyone who could give him something.  The lady who approached us didn’t look like a beggar at all.  I told my daughter that she instantly reminded me of myself a few years back when I was on my way to work and found  that my purse had been slashed.  Fortunately, it had a cloth lining inside, and so the slasher failed to steal anything at all from me.  Oh, I was so thankful that day! 

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.. Mother Teresa

how often in our lifetime are we able to say a kind word or two to anybody around us? Sometimes we even fail to think about these things as we go along our day to day activities. A simple “thank you” for a small favor done for us would mean a whole lot to a person. A meaningful “I’m sorry” helps ease the little pains we sometimes unconsciously bear on people we least expect to care at all. I myself, do admit to having missed a lot on this in my life. As a simple human being, I appreciate all kind words that are said to me. Like Mother Teresa said, kind words always remain and echo in my mind endlessly. But it seems there are still times when I do forget to say a kind word or two to people around me. After reading these words of Mother Teresa, I realized how important it is to remember to say a kind word to anyone who deserves it. It makes people happy. I am a happy person, and I believe that I can share this happiness with people around me as I go through my daily life. If you want to be kind enough to make someone happy, just say a kind word!

Don’t you just hate it when you walk into government office for a very important matter and they tell you sorry, it’s their Breaktime? Sometimes I get so upset whenever this happens, especially when I come from a far place and spend so much traveltime just to get to a government office and they tell me they are closed for lunch or breaktime! Well, I do understand that everybody is entitled to have a breaktime. But, in this country, never, ever walk into a government office the minute the clock strikes 12:00pm because you won’t find a single soul around.  Well, at least not till 1:00pm. Everybody is stricken with the breaktime syndrome. You may, however, be lucky enough to still find someone who isn’t hungry yet in that office, and hasn’t left his or her desk at that moment you stepped in! You must have prayed really hard enough on your way to that government office! I really wouldn’t mind if everyone had that breaktime syndrome, if I was well aware that everytime you step into a government office in this country and you find every employee working on his desk. I’ve entered too many, where you find employees stricken with the breaktime syndrome, sitting around and gossipping while a long line of people wait outside to be attended to. Sometimes they actually don’t realize that breaktime is over! And if ever you want express service, well, there’s either an extra fee for that, or, you would have to attract the attention of one of those gossipping employees and offer some “incentive” to get your stuff done right away. At times it’s just so disappointing to see things happen this way. But what can we do? Just live with it, right? Live with the Breaktime Syndrome! I really, really don’t want to generalize that ALL government offices run this way, though. But at this point I still have to find one that has given the most ordinary Filipino citizen the kind of service that would change my point of view about the entire group, the group that’s stricken with the Breaktime Syndrome!