The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

We all have parts of our lives that are good, and we all have some bad parts. Occassionally there are ugly parts that make us want to hide in the darkest corner we can find. Some of those parts are easier to deal with than others. And some are easier to not deal with than others.

It's beginning to become clearer to me that friendship is not always based on what we see as the best part of us. Friends are the incredible people who are there when we don't expect them to be. They are there for the good - the great parts of our lives that we want them to be there for - as well as the bad - the parts we don't necessarily want them to be there for. It's hard to deal with the fact that our friends will accept us even when the days aren't good. It's hard enough to deal with friends when we have a bad day. It's hard to realize that they are actually going to be there and not run away when something gets a little bit rough.

The worst part of realizing that your friends are always going to be there is when you kick back at them and they don't go away. The days when you are at your absolute lowest and can't imagine that anyone would ever have any remote reason to love you. The days when the person who comes closest to you is the one who receives the brunt of your anger and your inability to deal with yourself. Those are the days when you realize that your friend are in the frienship for the long haul. They are in no way dependent on you always having a good day and are there when you have really bad ones.

It is so easy for us to accept our friends when they are there for the good days. That's when we expect them to be there. The bad days are the ones we get surprised when we turn around and our friends are still there. The ugly days are when we get the shock of our lives that we are not alone. That's when we realize how important our friendships are and how much our friends actually care about us. It's almost like taking vows. Friends are the ones who are there. For better or for worse. For the good, the bad and the ugly.