What makes a Friend?

"True friendship... is infinite and immortal." - Plato

I really like this book by John C. Maxwell, as seen below:

A simple book on friendship. It contains stories about friendship and what friends do for each other.

Friends, in a few words

The question of this blog post really is to ask about "what makes a friend?"

Simply put, this is my take: A friend is love towards you embodied.

Now, as to what makes a good friend and a best friend, it's all a matter of degrees of how a person's love to you resonates with who you really are.

Nakedness.

It's also a degree of how NAKED you are towards that person. No, I don't necessarily mean physical. I mean this:

Deep nakedness.

Nakedness means a certain vulnerability. You only bare your self to people whom you trust, and trust is something that is built over a long time.

Trust means risking the fear of judgment in the hope of being accepted as who you are.

Just as our bodies are imperfect, so are our innermost selves. A true friend accepts you for all your perfections and imperfections.

Some people end up breaking your heart, and others end up building it up. Is it worth the risk?

Definitely. I agree with this guy Ralph Waldo Emerson:

"A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature."

Who We Are

Why is the friend the most important thing in nature?

Because our innermost essence is that of love.

All of us want and need to be appreciated, listened to, accepted, given opportunities for growth, encouraged, understood, and cared for.

To be loved is our most basic drive.

Once this drive is fulfilled, we end up naturally loving others as well, just as the person can only contain so much love.

Love we receive naturally overflows. 

On the converse, when we don't receive enough love, or we're "kulang sa pagmamahal", we end up taking because we are needy for love.

Dedication

So I just want to take this opportunity to say thank you to all my friends for being the awesome friends that they are.

I encourage people to share that gratitude with your friends. It will mean a lot.

I just want to share this cheesy line that my best friend and I tell each other:

"We're in here together for the long haul..."

"True friendship... is infinite and immortal." - Plato