Friends

A friend once wrote: The most love you can give to someone is to be there for them. The hurt you feel shows how much love you gave. He's a very wise friend. This statement is true for all types of relationships. Many people see the word "love" and think it just applies to romantic relationships. Nope, sorry, not that easy. Friendship can be just as painful sometimes.
In my opinion, hurt within a friendship is the most painful. I don't use "friend" too loosely. If I call someone a friend, it means something. I've connected with that person in some way. Now, there are levels of friendship -- I have some friends who I will never lose touch with and some who are here and now (or there and then) only. If something is going on within the friendship and signals are crossed, it causes hurt. Yes, sometimes that hurt is all in one or the other's head. The closer the friend, the harder it is to ask what's going on to clear things up. OK, so that has something to do with conflict management, that's a whole different topic. Admit it - no one likes conflict - especially if in their mind it's worse than reality. Getting past the worse case sceanario in your head is the hardest step.
I've lost friends along the way. It would be nice to say it's all their fault, however, it takes two to have a friendship and it takes two to lose it. I'm not a stupid person. I know these things and have learned much over the years. So why the hell do I write blogs instead of talking to people?! Oh, that's right, conflict .....well, there are 4 categories of conflict management..........