The Importance of Being Friendly

Saturday January 5, 2013: I have always tried to pride myself in being a likable person, and a friendly person. I've always tried to live by the "Golden Rule" - you know, 'Do Unto Others As You Would Have Done To You' But since I'm human, I don't always succeed. However, as far as being friendly, outgoing, and trying to make friends....I have always seemed to be able to do that for the most part. It doesn't make everyone like me, but such is life. Anyways, sometimes you meet people in your life who become your friends and you get along, and call each other friends even if you don't hang out regularly but that is about the extent of the friendship. There are other friends that you hang out with all of the time, go places with, do things with and just can't imagine your life without these people. I have friends that fall into each of these categories, and I probably fall into these categories myself when it comes to my friends. Either way, I try to treat each of them the same. I try to be friendly. Sometimes I fail at the whole friendship thing. Sometimes I succeed. Usually when I fail it's because I might be trying too hard. Sometimes I succeed, and don't even realize that I am succeeding. Sometimes you may not know you've succeeded in being a great friend until many years down the road. Recently I have had a couple of encounters with friends from school that many years later have turned out to be good friends. Friends that have helped me get through some tough times, or have helped me to get my life on track in some area or other. These friends were people that I was friendly with in school, called my friends "back in the day" but lost touch with over time as we tend to do as we get older and move on in life. People that during that stretch of years I may never have had any contact with, or would never have reached out to during difficult times. Through social networks like Facebook, and Google+ I've been able to reconnect with many of my friends from elementary school, middle school, high school, old jobs, and other aspects of life. A couple of my friends that I talk to these days if you had told me 20+ years ago that they would help me through some situation in my life nearly 25 years after high school, I probably would have laughed at you just because we weren't "that close" of friends....we were just friends. These people have not hesitated to help me, and I am very thankful for them. While I won't mention their names (to save them the embarrassment of being my friend) they will know who they are if they read this. The one friend I reached out to as I was searching for a better way of life, and they have been there to help me out. The other friend reached out to me after reading some of my status updates on Facebook, and they cared enough to see if there was anything they could do to help despite us not being "best friends". Both of these friends have been a big help in getting me to where I am at this point in my life, and have helped me more than they know over the last month to feel the way I do about my life. So thank you to both of you. So despite having great friends in my life, and friends that I have had all of my life....I get happiness out of being friendly to others, and doing what I can for others. Because like karma, you just never know when it is going to come back on you. But unlike karma, when friendliness comes back to you.....it's worth accepting.