Saved by Ish H
It’s Your Friends Who Break Your Heart
* “The dynamic of friendship is almost always underestimated as a constant force in human life: a diminishing circle of friends is the first terrible diagnostic of a life in deep trouble: of overwork, of too much emphasis on a professional identity, of forgetting who will be there when our armored personalities run into the inevitable natural disas... See more
thevalueofsparrows.wordpress.com • WORDS: Friendship by David Whyte
And yet it seems normal now that plans are made far in advance — scheduled around myriad travel and wedding weekends and kids and work commitments — and then canceled right before. Someone doesn’t follow up, or cancels and then never proposes an alternative plan. Similarly, promising new adult friendships never seem to blossom into the kind o
... See morePriorities shift, responsibilities grow, we make choices. I’m as big a culprit as any. I keep moving to new cities, unable to settle. I see photos of my friends’ kids, and they look so old, and I realize how much I’ve missed. I no longer share in all the biggest developments of their lives. Sending a text, making a call, video-chatting, double-tapp
... See moreEvan Puschak • Escape into Meaning: Essays on Superman, Public Benches, and Other Obsessions
So just when you think friendship or wealth or a family or influence was your ultimate destination, you hang out there for a while and the place starts to dim. What once held your fascination—even, for a time, seemed like it was your reason to live—doesn’t “do it” for you anymore. You won’t admit it to yourself for a long while. After all, you sent
... See moreJames K. A. Smith • On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts
What both of these traits have in common is that I seem to live my life as if I’m under siege. I’m guessing my amygdala is the size of a cantaloupe.Most of my withered friendships can be chalked up to this terrible tendency of mine not to reach out. I have pals in Washington, D.C., where I started my professional life, whom I haven’t seen in years,... See more
Jennifer Senior • It’s Your Friends Who Break Your Heart
Some social scientists and even philosophers suggest a different vision of friendship, in which friendship is conceived not as a ledger of emotional debits and credits but as an organic creation — an artwork — built by the friends themselves. Conceived in this way, friendships are not ranked or stratified along a bright line from BFF to near strang... See more