Skip to main content

Friendship: One Soul in Two Bodies

It has already been a good New Year.  The first week of the year is something I treat with a degree of respect that doesn't often get replicated too closely for the fifty one that follow.  It is, I think, often very telling whom it is that I choose to spend recreation time with. Recreation is, I feel, something to be taken very seriously.  I often ask clients at the beginning of our work together what it is that they most enjoy doing.  I even have a question on the intake form that every new client completes at the commencement of therapy - I ask them to describe what their perfect day would look like, what shape it would take, where they would be, what they would do, and whom they'd most like to spend it with...  How we spend time that we might truly call our own is, I think, very important in determining who we are, and how we feel.


This week has been something of a gift.  I have spent time with friends and family.  People who are important to me.  Precious individuals.  The people without which I wouldn't be who, what or where I am today. I am in debt to these souls, who have together given me, and continue to give me, more than they will ever know. Friendship is something that fascinates me.  I don't claim to be an expert, but I am an enthusiastic novice, blessed with some very dear friends who have shown me what it is to be alive, have supported me to find my authentic self, and given me the courage to be true to her.  

Earlier this week I celebrated my birthday.  I didn't just notice it - I celebrated.  In style, and in excellent company.  I was privileged to be surrounded by those people I count amongst my closest friends many of whom have walked alongside me (and crawled, when I've needed to take it slowly).  See, I subscribe to the idea that you don't need plenty of friends, but you need a few good-enough friends.  I aspire always to be a good-enough friend.          

Those special individuals I feel privileged to count amongst my friends are both resilient and reliable.  I know where I stand.  They have boundaries, and let me know when I've stepped out of line, or dropped the ball.  They know their truth, and aren't afraid to speak it.  I admire them.  I respect them.  I love them.  We do not necessarily have regular opportunities to see one another, but we know where to find each other should we need to reach out.  Time spent together is always special.  It is where memories are made, and something deepens between us as a friendship touches both individuals, leaving each of us subtly, but undeniably changed.  Friends challenge me.  It is with my friends, and with their support, that I have grown.  




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Table. Apple. Penny.

Whilst there were several places I might have been that morning, I wouldn't have been anywhere else.  The practitioner from the Memory Service arrived promptly.  I liked her instantly.    Mum was nervous.  I think I was a little, too.  It's been a difficult year.   "It's Friday, it's the fourteenth of December and I'm at home..."   No problems there.  CAMCOG, or the Cambridge Cognitive Examination is a thorough assessment tool used to assess the extent of extent of dementia, and to assess the level of cognitive impairment.  The standardised  measure assesses orientation, language, memory, praxis, attention, abstract thinking, perception and calculation.    "Table.  Apple.  Penny."   Three everyday items that were introduced at one point, and then referred to again later on.  Again, Mum was able to recall each.      I am reminded that the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Glass half full? Glass half empty? Or perhaps the glass is broken

I am, constitutionally, a glass half empty gal.  I will always first acknowledge what I don't have, what I have lost, and what it is that I am seeking.  I tend to overlook my strengths, concentrating only on those bits of me that are underdeveloped or weak.  I refer to myself as a realist, but in doing so compliment myself and insult those who genuinely are simply realistic.  My modus operandi is to identify what's not working and acknowledge this before seeing more clearly what functions perfectly well.  This has its place: I edit others' written work pretty well.  My fastidious attention to detail serves me, and the author.  Accuracy counts, for me and I have an excellent memory.  I can remember a great many of my sessions with clients verbatim.  Even this asset is something I can, and do, diminish the true value of, by concentrating on 'I should have said...' or 'why didn't....  occur to me during the session?' Earlier this we...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pausing in the sunshine

And so, chemo is over.  My best friend's diary has been chocker...  Line cleans, blood tests, scans and 18 weekly doses of the gruelling treatment itself.  Summer seems at last to have arrived and with it, we hope, some time, peace and space. She is, we acknowledged over a rather yummy luncheon served to us beneath the beautiful canopy of creepers and climbers at Petersham Nurseries, an inspiration. A small group of us gathered to celebrate her forthcoming marriage.  The sun's rays joined the warmth we all have for this very special woman.  Warmth and, in my case at least, pride. It is the greatest privilege to call this woman my best friend.  She continues to epitomise my understanding of grace.  Our bodies are fragile things.  Our minds are frailer still.  In her composure and wisdom, she possesses an outlook I can only aspire to adopt.  From you, dear Charlotte, I learn and I learn and I learn.   The ...
Post a Comment
Read more