I Glow On with a little help from my friends ☺

When we’re going through a tough time, we want the support of our friends around us.
But our friendships don’t always survive the Big Transitions in our lives.

There are some people who start avoiding us, and there are some people we start avoiding. And this makes room for wonderful new friends. ☺

When I first moved into my flat I was so freaked out about being on my own (living alone for the first time ever, at the age of 42!) - that I arranged a roster of Betsey-Sitters to come over every evening and keep me company.

I was deeply sad, traumatised and feeling very insecure and shaky – but one thing’s for sure – I wasn’t miserable!
I know this because “misery loves company” – and there were a few friends who liked nothing better than to come over and settle in for a long, bitter vent about how all men were bastards and how hard life was.
This certainly wasn’t my view, and there was no way I was going to be a co-misery!

I wanted to celebrate Life and enjoy good times and laughter with my friends - so the ones who wanted a pity party were the first to go!

I soon realised that some of the people I’d always been there for – the ones I’d supported night after night during their break-ups, drawn-out divorces and times of unemployment and hardships  - were not necessarily going to be there for me.
I realised that most of them were simply so self-involved that they couldn’t have pulled their gaze from their own navel. ☺

"The shifts of fortune test the reliability of friends." ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

And when one or two friends realised that I no longer had the same disposable income – they pretty much disposed of our friendship! 
I couldn’t afford to join them for wining and dining at the hip spots in town, and it turned out it wasn’t my company they were actually after.
They’d call me up - and then turn down invitations to visit because they preferred to be out and about.
So I haven’t seen them since. ☺

As any newly divorced woman is sure to find out – there are some married women friends who drop you because they feel threatened by your single status.
As if suddenly, now that you’re no longer attached, you’ve turned into some sort of femme fatale with a rampaging desire to seduce their husbands.
Which is absolutely ridiculous, because let’s face it – why on earth would I suddenly want their husbands? They don’t even find them attractive, so why would I? ☺☺

Friendships do come and go in our lives - it’s normal that some friends are with us at different times and stages.
But our true friends remain loyal throughout, regardless of time or distance.

My closest friends have been supportive, kind and generous and shown me the value of what true friendship really means.

I’ve dropped the needy people, been dropped by the shallow people, been supported by loving people and made some wonderful new friends on this part of my GloWoman journey. 

"A man's growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

We’re each on our own individual path and we’re all at different stages on our unique journey. But we’re never alone.
Old friends and new friends are always there to love and support us along the way.
Some align with us for a while and some align with us throughout lifetimes, and all of them enrich our lives in their own way.

Our true friends encourage, support, inspire and uplift us, whatever our circumstances - and we do the same for them. 
I wouldn’t accept anything less. ☺

With Love,