When You Need A Friend

With the continuing lockdown here in the UK many of us are at home, frustrated by being unable to do the things we want to do but realising the need to stay at home in order to minimise the risk of the virus spreading. 

The good thing about being at home is that I don't have to get up at 05.00 in the morning to go to work, the day is much more leisurely and I can basically do as much or as little as I want to. It also give us that precious commodity that we never seem to have enough of, time..........Having more time is a good thing, it gives you time to think, again a good thing. But it also means you have time to go over some of the less pleasant times in our past. 

And  so it happened to me, only a week or so ago, I ended up discussing a period in my life that was extremely painful at the time, and as the far reaching consequences have yet to be resolved, continues to this day to be difficult for me at times. I am not going to go into the details, but it came very close to destroying me completely. This was a number of years ago, but as I say still can be difficult for me at times. A truly wonderful friend suggested I tell her about it, I wasn't going to as I didn't think it would be fair on her, after all we all have enough problems at the moment. In the end I did tell her, she said she was struggling to find words to describe the situation. Of course she could not produce a magical solution, and as it was a number of years ago, I am well over it, for the most part, now. But, what she did do was provide me with the most fabulous support I could have wished for, something I will be indebted to her for the remainder of my life. I have no intention of naming the individual, but if she ever reads this she will know instantly I am talking about her.

The point of this story, is not that I have had a difficult time either recently or in the past, the point is we need our friends, we need our friends to be there for us when we are struggling with life and we need to be there for them when they need our support. 

If you feel life is getting hard, talk to someone, the days of manly men being the strong silent types have gone, if you are struggling, talk to a friend, if that is not possible there are lots of support services available, failing that talk to your doctor, who will point you in the right direction to find the help you need. When the world collapsed in on me, I had no one I could turn to, heaven knows how I managed to get through it, but I did, no one has to struggle alone any more........

Be there for a friend, it's one of the best things you can ever do in your life................