July Newsletter

My aunt once told me that friends are like ships in a harbour. You might stay anchored next to each other for years, you might drift out to sea and never return, you might pass each other during a storm, you might follow or lead for awhile and then swiftly or slowly head in opposite directions. Isn’t that thought just filled with both sorrow and wonder?

We will always have a magnificent array of friends accompanying us throughout our lives. We will value the one who bestow upon us sound advice, we will engage with one who empathise and understand our woes, the one to laugh with, cry with, feel safe with. There is the one to reminisce with and the one to dream with. The handful who know us well and the crowd who know us not at all. And for a privileged few, the ones they have forever.

And it is only natural to feel safe in the harbour with the ships we know and trust but, as the famous lyrics go: “A ship in Harbour is safe… but that is not what ships are for.” We are meant to socialise, meet people, extract the qualities that makes each person unique and share our own.

There where people live long, healthy lives, across the ocean in small happy communities, there they value the importance of friendships. A side note from the Irish: There are good ships, there are wood ships, there are ships that sail the sea. But the best ships are friendships, and may they always be. These communities have been studied to better understand the secret of their longevity and the reason, it comes as no surprise, for their happy longevity lies within their relationships with the people around them. It might be a casual conversation or a deep connection but conversations and connections are had – daily, purposefully.

Life is full of people who are present throughout our life and we should embrace each encounter with fervour and passion. How can we know how long our ships will hover alongside each other?