I’m really only praying the words you’ll soon be saying
Might betray the way you feel about me
But to me, coming from you
Friend is a four letter word
Friend is a Four Letter Word, Cake
In the comfort of my room, I laid my scrapbook on my bed.
Before me was a spread of memories. The smiles of friends, past loves and former coworkers greeted me.
I ran my fingers over the glossed moments, remembering old feelings of happiness and love. Relationships have come and gone quickly in the last few years. Many friendships diminished. Vanished. Forgotten.
The word friendship symbolizes a beautiful relationship that can exist between two people, but within the word are three letters that cannot be ignored.
E. N. D. End.
Many of my friendships within the last couple of months even have come to end, their chemistry changing. Life has taken my counterparts and me down different paths.
I watched Stand By Me over the weekend. It’s easily the male version of Now and Then. Four young men banded together by a mission. After their travels, Gordie Lachance says this about friendships:
As time went on, we saw less and less of Teddy and Vern until eventually they became just two more faces in the halls. It happens sometimes. Friends come in and out of your life like busboys in a restaurant.
It happens sometimes. It does.
People shuffle in and out of our lives, each leaving their mark on our hearts. Even the most beautiful friendships are taken by the oceans of time, life, struggles, differences—and some simply cave in on themselves.
My eyes wandered the old pages as I reminisced, missing the familiar moments, but treasuring the time spent together.
It was then I was reminded of a quote from one of Tyler Perry’s plays that touched me very deeply:
If somebody wants to walk out of your life—let them go! Some people are meant to come into your life for a lifetime, some for only a season and you got to know which is which. And you’re always messing up when you mix those seasonal people up with lifetime expectations.
I put everyone that comes into my life in the category of a tree. Some people are like leaves on a tree. When the wind blows, they’re over there…wind blow that way, they over here…they’re unstable. When the season change they wither and die, they’re gone. That’s all right. Most people are like that, they’re not there to do anything but take from the tree and give shade every now and then. That’s all they can do. But don’t get mad at people like that, that’s who they are. That’s all they were put to this earth to be: a leaf.
Some people are like branch on that tree. You have to be careful with those branches, too, ‘cause they’ll fool you. They’ll make you think they’re a good friend and they’re real strong, but the minute you step out there on them, they’ll break and leave you high and dry.
But if you find 2 or 3 people in your life that’s like the roots at the bottom of that tree, you are blessed. Those are the kind of people that aren’t going nowhere. They aren’t worried about being seen, nobody has to know that they know you, they don’t have to know what they’re doing for you, but if those roots weren’t there, that tree couldn’t live.
A tree could have a hundred million branches but it only takes a few roots down at the bottom to make sure that tree gets everything it needs. When you get some roots, hold on to them, but the rest of it—just let it go! Let folks go.
As Stand By Me closes, an aged Gordie notes, “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?”
Will I ever have friends again? I’m at a standstill. I’m praying to God for some roots. I’d like some deep friendships. Let the ends that have happened in my life lead to new beginnings, God. Please bring some friends with whom I can share my life.
