I'm participating in Suzannah's blogfest ShoutLaughLove.
Sometime back I posted on Facebook a little conversation I overheard in the car while taking Miss3 to daycare. Mr6 had some wise words for her on the subject of making friends.
"When you see a friend you don't know, you tell them your name and then you play with them all day."
There are things I love about his advice.
1. His willingness to view everyone as a potential friend.
2. The apparent freedom he feels about introducing himself to that person he wants to be friends with.
3. His suggestion on how to grow that friendship.
I'm a shy person and find it difficult to make new friends. I'm not a natural socialite. As an adult I've lost that innocence that everyone is a potential friend. There needs to be some kind of connection or commonality before I will reach out and introduce myself. But the funny thing about blogging, Twitter and other social networking venues is that once I've made an online connection I feel more confident about meeting that person in real life. I'm still a bit shy about it but it's easier for me because the ice has been broken.
If a friendship is to grow it needs to be nurtured and Mr6 is right - you need to spend time with that person. There are some kinds of friendships that seem to be able to stand up to periods of disconnection, to pick up from where they left off and grow some more. Others, like marriage, require constant input in order to grow.
This little incident gave me some thoughts to meditate on in terms of my faith, my relationship with God, His graciousness towards me etc. I don't feel completely comfortable sharing them here, but those of you who are thus minded could probably suss them out.
Lovely post Penny... I think I'd find it easier meeting up with people having broken the ice on Twitter and the blog too
ReplyDeleteGood advice as they say "out of the mouth of babes".
ReplyDeleteFunny thing Friendships, I have a few where we can pick up where we left off. It doesn't mean anything other than that.
But there are some friends who have alienated themselves and I am left wondering what I have done. I realised last week that it isn't about me. Its the whole season and reason thing as cliched as it sounds.
I think I was more sad by the fact we didn't break up in the sense that it would have given me some sense of closure if you know what I mean, rather than the feeling of wondering why?
But this all became transparent when I was examining my friendships and how I have found myself in the situation of walking away from friendships.
So full circle and some food for thought.
What a lovely conversation from the kids. I have found meeting twitter friends IRL fantastic, we felt comfortable from the start
ReplyDeletewhat a sweet boy!
ReplyDeletei'm not even shy and find it really hard to create friendships as an adult. i think i need to take you little man's advice and invest more time.
thanks so much for linking up, penny:)
Love Tim's advice "play with them all day". :-)
ReplyDeleteI've met a couple of people in real life through blogging and found when we have met it's like we already knew each other hehee :-)
i'm here from suzannah's shoutlaughlove, and i love the wisdom of your little boy! i never used to consider myself shy, but since having kids it seems much harder to maintain friendships let alone grow new ones. yet, he's right--it takes work! this is a great encouragement for us to be vulnerable!
ReplyDeleteI'm visiting from Suzannah's.
ReplyDeleteLove the wisdom your little man spoke. I am not shy, but it seems the older I get the harder I find it is to make new friends.
Thank you for your vulnerability. You have me thinking about some people with whom I need to work harder to connecting!
This was such a fabulous post it has inspired my next post = which won't be till later ;) Thanks!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful. I love kids! I was a little nervous going off on Sunday to meet @nomesd and a few other people I'd not met - Mr 17 said- "well it's not like it's a date mum is it?" - put it all in perspective and I had a lovely evening.
ReplyDelete