The Angels God Puts in Our Way

Oh boy, yesterday I was down, I was really down. Like we say in Costa Rica, I was "ten degrees under dog" (diez grados bajo perro), which is basically like saying "Do you know what's like to feel like a dog? Well, I'm ten degrees under that". It didn't help that my boyfriend was also a couple of degrees under dog, so when I was writing the post yesterday I was facing the groom possibility to go back to Costa Rica and abandon my dream of living here until the end of my days. The night was terrible for both of us due to our worries - which didn't improve my boyfriend's under-dog degrees since I told him I might be going back if things didn't improve - and by morning the prospect of returning to Costa Rica was more and more present in our minds. Man, I was down!

Then I've got online and the messages of my friends popped up, and their words of hope filled my heart. They believe I can fly! ^_^ Those "hold on there" and "I know you can do it" made it for me. I'm not saying that I'm out of the rabbithole, but I'd say I'm at least three degrees OVER dog. I could hear in my head the voice of my friends with their caring berating. "What? Two months into it and you are giving up? And here I thought you were serious about this" and "Giving up? Why? You expected jobs to wlecome you at the airport? Wake up bitch and smell the coffee! Now go back on there and work it!". I needed that. I really needed that. The support, the endless and unconditional love, their words of advise and their understanding. It felt good not know, not only that my friends are there - far or close but always there - and would love me and accept me whatever I decide to do - stay or leave - and if I fall, they are there to cheer me up, to charge me back with their positive energy, their prayers and their thoughts.

My friends are the angels God put in my way to look after me and give me hope, remind me always that He's there and replying to my prayers before I speak them. They are the magic spell that always work and the lungful of Prana that fills you with the best of the Universe.

These are friends. But not only those who write and call and are physically and electronically there, but also those that think about you and mention it to you. Those you know and you feel they care. These are amazing and a blessing. However we all know that not all of those who say are your friends, and cover the "standard requirements" are really friends. More often than not, you run into "friends" who check on regularly with you and ask you about how you are and how are things going, go out with you every time there's a coffee-with-friends, either they call you or who call them by some reason, but time and again there's a connection lacking. There's a lack of a spark. You don't get to feel that kind of trust, that kind of deep connection you experience with those friends you are two steps away from calling "siblings", and if you have penpals or friends living far away from you, you may not be able to explain why you feel much closer and place more confidence on those friends you probably haven't seen  or whom you meet once a year in Vienna for a quick coffee. Why these people probably SMS-ing you four times a day, and following the social protocol of a good friend, don't click with you?

I have had friends like these - my friend Trish already knows about the infamous Ivan the Great Gay Wizard - who actually praised themselves of being outstanding friends, and often said they can't consider a friend someone who don't check on them on daily basis. They are your friends to get something out of you, and it's not your friendship. They want your contacts, they want your attention, they want your help, they envy you and what to keep you close to destroy you, they want your boyfriend, they want your money, your job, the notes you take at class or the answers to the test. They might be even more deceiving, and might be aiming at getting you as part of their "friend statistics" and keeping you as a sort of stock, or a number to show the world and to themselves that they are successful, friendly people.

Sometimes you can clearly identify these people, sometimes they follow the "social protocol" so well, you can't really pinpoint what's wrong. It's like a friend of mine said recently about etiquette: "it's supposed to make you perfect, correct at all moments and self-confident because you'll know how to act at every situation and always give the best of impressions, but it makes you unnatural, takes away your autenticity and gets down right ridiculous". I too prefer natural, honest people, who'd tell you what they feel, and not what they are expected to tell you, who call you or write to you when they have a reason to do so, and not to keep up their perfect score. Above all, I prefer people who feel like friends.

I believe in magic, like many of you know, and I believe that magic is everywhere and on everything. Magic doesn't need spells and potions or wands and all sorts of special effects, all they need is you, and your willingness to recognize it. I believe that friends are a very powerful type of magic, and so, to recognize your friends, your true friends all you need it to believe in the magic of friendship and allow yourself to feel, not just know. Sense your friends with your heart, trust your instincts, not just the external signs. External signs and evidence can be manufactured, but no one can trick your heart.

If possible, I'd like to make a post chain, and so I ask my blogger friends to please post a post about friends and friendship. Please? Just what you feel, what you believe, what you think, what your experiences are. It's up to us to show the world we still care about real friend - penpals, friends at the distance, friends from childhood, from work, from the neighbourhood - not only the friend and followers social networks push in our way. Let's show the world and spread the gospel, that friends are real and we still feel them deep inside our hearts, not only at the end of our cursor.