The Friends Who Matter Most Will Always Be There (But You Shouldn’t Take Them For Granted)

The friends we love the most are often the ones we inadvertently take for granted. In the pervading and transient hustle and bustle, these people are among the few consistencies of our lives. And yet sometimes they’re the ones we purposely defer communicating with, only because of our vehement credence in the conjectures – albeit self-created – of friendship.

We remember them often during the day, regardless of the last time we spoke or met, which always seems so recent. Sometimes we passionately resolve that we’ll make that one phone call or send that long-pending message to break the monotony of our lives. The feeling of déjà vu strikes us repeatedly, as we keep breaking (false) promises that tomorrow will be a new day. But we are invariably imbued with rapture and serenity inseparably linked with them, and so we forgive our follies again and again.

They surprise us sometimes because we surprise ourselves with our distinct alliance with them. We fear complacency, and then we jump over the fence.

We know they are just a call away, and sometimes we still don’t call.

Trudging along, at the end of another day, we wonder why we never sent that message in the first place. Two minutes – is that too much too spare?

Just when we spare a moment for them, we are again reminded of happy memories with them. And then their reflections permeate through our mind, just like ripples in a pond, suffusing through the acceptance that we don’t exactly love our busy lives.

At the end of the day, waiting at a busy train platform, we tell ourselves, “This is it. I’ll get home tonight, and I will make that call.”

These are people in the same city we may not have met awhile – they’re right there, and yet so far. We wonder what kept us apart all this while, and so many gushing thoughts race through our minds. Are two minutes really enough?

And then we turn around, just where we’re standing. Amazingly, they arrive at the same place, just when you least expect it.

Perhaps it’s true that you attract your thoughts. If the world is small and round, such coincidences shouldn’t be surprising.

But not everything means something. Everything doesn’t happen because of something always. Sometimes, life throws surprises at us. The most significant gifts don’t always come in big boxes and fancy wrapping paper adorned with a neat red ribbon. In some way, such little miracles define our relationships with people.

When the path clears up, and circumstances mould themselves for us, these are the brief moments that make us realize that although there aren’t signs everywhere – the only sign that really matters is that they’re just as elated to see you.