We are the most connected people in human history. Email, Facebook, Twitter… In just a few minutes I can write to every member of my family. I can say as many words as I want, I can even send a video, a document, a picture or call and speak to them anytime I want.
Yes, we are the most connected culture, but in the same time we as people are the loneliest people in the history of human kind. How is that possible? I guess that, among all these words we say, we forget to say what is really important. The message of love and care gets somehow lost.
Recently I decided to start writing letters; real letters written on paper and sent by post. Not my thing, I thought. As I was writing I realized I cannot say too many things, I had to choose what I want to say, what is important. In the end I found myself writing about different things than I planned. I wrote about what these people mean to me. I actually found lots of joy in writing and even more joy imagining how the people I’ve sent those letters to will react and what will they feel when they receive it.
I also found that writing and sending letters is not the easiest thing. It takes effort, time and also it cost something. It is not a cheapest thing.
Then I understood. We as a culture have lost a sense/understanding of friendship. It doesn’t mean too much to us anymore. I have over 6oo friends on Facebook, still I find myself lonely sometimes. We have friendships that don’t cost us anything and so we don’t make much effort to love. All is easy.
But true friendship is hard work. It takes time, effort, investing into our friends and it always cost us something. Friendship that doesn’t demand anything is not real friendship.
“Friendship is measured by Love and Love is measured by sacrifice, self-denial.”
If I am not able or willing to sacrifice a bit of time, if I cannot give up something for my friends, do I really love them? I love just myself.
I always heard that the true friend is the one who stays by your side when everyone else turns away. True friend is the one who gives his life for the other person. Well, to give life may sound too heroic for some, maybe quite easy for others, maybe it is something we all hope to do if the opportunity comes. Not many of us will actually ever be in such a situation. But giving life means also small everyday things, like: giving time, lending a helping hand, listening, and correcting and being honest.
Let us be true friends then. Let us invest into our friends, let us encourage each other, let us love.
Yes, we are the most connected culture, but in the same time we as people are the loneliest people in the history of human kind. How is that possible? I guess that, among all these words we say, we forget to say what is really important. The message of love and care gets somehow lost.
Recently I decided to start writing letters; real letters written on paper and sent by post. Not my thing, I thought. As I was writing I realized I cannot say too many things, I had to choose what I want to say, what is important. In the end I found myself writing about different things than I planned. I wrote about what these people mean to me. I actually found lots of joy in writing and even more joy imagining how the people I’ve sent those letters to will react and what will they feel when they receive it.
I also found that writing and sending letters is not the easiest thing. It takes effort, time and also it cost something. It is not a cheapest thing.
Then I understood. We as a culture have lost a sense/understanding of friendship. It doesn’t mean too much to us anymore. I have over 6oo friends on Facebook, still I find myself lonely sometimes. We have friendships that don’t cost us anything and so we don’t make much effort to love. All is easy.
But true friendship is hard work. It takes time, effort, investing into our friends and it always cost us something. Friendship that doesn’t demand anything is not real friendship.
“Friendship is measured by Love and Love is measured by sacrifice, self-denial.”
If I am not able or willing to sacrifice a bit of time, if I cannot give up something for my friends, do I really love them? I love just myself.
I always heard that the true friend is the one who stays by your side when everyone else turns away. True friend is the one who gives his life for the other person. Well, to give life may sound too heroic for some, maybe quite easy for others, maybe it is something we all hope to do if the opportunity comes. Not many of us will actually ever be in such a situation. But giving life means also small everyday things, like: giving time, lending a helping hand, listening, and correcting and being honest.
Let us be true friends then. Let us invest into our friends, let us encourage each other, let us love.