There is an old saying, You can pick your friends, but not your relatives This is so true, so choose your friends wisely. Good ones are hard to find. You will need them to confide in when life gets tough and perhaps through these tough times will help us sift the sincere devoted friends from the rest. There is an art to friendship. We must be willing to be vulnerable with one another, be able to speak our minds and to be ourselves; to trust and to never love less or be loved less because of any shortcomings you discover in friends. Find friends who bring out the best in you and beware of false friends who take all and give nothing back. However look for a friend without a single fault and you will spend your whole life without a true friend and that is a fate I wish on no one. It isn’t easy, and it requires a commitment, much like any other worthwhile relationship in our lives. If you truly want to get to know someone…ask their friends.

Okay so there are your best friends, your close friends, your old friends, your new friends and of course those long distance friends. Much like the stars on a cloudy night, we know that they are still out there. And so it is with those friends, who we are not always able to see as often as we would like. And then there are those departed friends. Anyone who has ever lost a friend knows that pain all too well. The loss of a beloved friend leaves us speechless. There is no single word to describe it. I do believe however that the first voices we hear when we leave this world will surely be those of the friends who went before us.