Clairvoyant Friendship

A true story of how friendship carried me through the darkest valleys of my life

“People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. When you figure out which it is, you know exactly what to do .”— Author Unknown

Some time ago, I stumbled across this beautiful poem while desperately seeking answers to the heartbreak and pain that was wreaking havoc in my life. The author’s discerning eye for the transient and enduring nature of relationships resonated deeply within me. But perhaps the line that jumped at me was the very last one in the section about lifetime relationships: “It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.”

These words have the capability to evoke different interpretations based on our individual experiences. Those of us who have been burned by our so-called friends might find it quite impossible to relate to it beyond the fabric of a romantic relationship. And that’s okay. In my case, it reminded me of a conversation I had with Josie, my friend of twenty years. She said something along the lines of “I don’t know how you do it, if I were in your shoes I doubt I would have survived.”

To say I was shocked by this dramatic statement was putting it mildly. She was referring to the inevitable curveballs life throws at us — health issues, relationship woes, gut-wrenching betrayals to name a few, and how I have managed to overcome them in the last six years.

This, coming from the woman whom I’d vouch for having nerves of steel, whom I’ve come to rely on as my ever-flowing font of advice on navigating the vagaries of life. She has this ingenious talent of breaking down whatever mountain I might be facing into bite-sized pieces every single time. You see, there have been instances when I’ve hit dead ends and picked myself up only because I could believe my circumstances were not greater than me.

“To have someone understand your mind is a different kind of intimacy.”

One time I commented that I’d often felt her love and support for me was because I was weak, what with my nagging insecurities, hypersensitive nature, and proneness to impulsive actions — only to be blown away by her gentle reply “I only provided advice dear, you did the living.”

Somehow she perceived my inner reserves of strength and resilience that even I didn’t know existed, tapped into it by alternately boosting me up and goading me to keep going. And each time I refused to give up was in part due to my sweet friend’s unwavering conviction in my ability to surmount.

“Friendship isn’t about who you have known the longest. It’s about who walked into your life, said ‘I’m here for you’ and proved it.”

So, I could ask myself, is my friend’s love for me blind? Does she possess secret psychic powers since she is able to read me so well? The answer to the first would be a resounding no because I know for a fact she loves me as I am, warts and all.

As for the second, I won’t deny that I have had my suspicions over the years! I recall that even back then, she was quick to sense I wasn’t the stuck-up person most people misconstrued me to be but intuited my personality for what it was — painfully shy and reserved.

I’m so glad she did because I obtained what I would say is the rarest of rare gems, a lifelong friend. And the rest as we say is history.