Friendship – Real or Virtual

Some random musings….

I’m a very cautious person when it comes to friendship. No. It was not like this always. It is only after a few sour experiences that I’m reluctant in being whole-heartedly dedicated to any friendship/relationship. It’s only because of the fear of getting hurt again and again. Hurt because I don’t opt to give it back most of the time. Yes. My piece of mind. I would rather prefer to let that person be happy the way they are. This trait of mine, many a times, is taken for granted. I hate giving or receiving justification. Thus I choose to stay quiet, unlike what people think of as my dumbness.

Virtual or online friendships were something I was really afraid of. I wasn’t completely wrong though, because I have had bad experiences with a few who tried to be super sweet and caring. But thankfully in virtual friendships there are buttons like Restrict, Unriend or Block, unlike real friendship where you bump into the person once in a while opening up the pandora box all over again. Whatever be the buttons available, the loss or harm has already been done.

I have also seen more people getting hurt because of words from their ‘friends’ after the invent of social media. All I would say is we ourselves must define the line of control. The more we allow people to get to us, the more it hurts. I would rather prefer to use my ‘horoscope mantra’ that I use it with Mom. She gets worried after the astrologer does some mathematics and juggles with Rahu, Ketu and Shani. I then tell her that all the good things he said were about me and the not so good ones may have bumped in by mistake. My smile makes her smile too. Job done. 🙂 Not so easy. She does make me attend poojas and do certain rituals and I gladly do it for her, so that she is at peace. To me a ‘pooja’ or ‘havan’ is nothing more than disinfecting the venue and thus bringing in healthier atmosphere. 

Recently, when I saw lots of my online friends having a great relationship with their online pals, my heart did feel good. After all friendship is friendship. You don’t measure it or do a quality check before getting into it. So here’s raising a toast to all kinds of friendship, real or virtual, and here’s wishing that there are no heart breaks. Glad to have known some great souls virtually and hope to see some of them during the course of life. 🙂

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Something really beautiful that I got to read one beautiful morning by the sea side. 🙂

Perfectly Imperfect

“We have all heard that no two snowflakes are alike. Each snowflake takes the perfect form for the maximum efficiency and effectiveness for its journey. And while the universal force of gravity gives them a shared destination, the expansive space in the air gives each snowflake the opportunity to take their own path. They are on the same journey, but each takes a different path.
Along this gravity-driven journey, some snowflakes collide and damage each other, some collide and join together, some are influenced by wind… there are so many transitions and changes that take place along the journey of the snowflake. But, no matter what the transition, the snowflake always finds itself perfectly shaped for its journey.
I find parallels in nature to be a beautiful reflection of grand orchestration. One of these parallels is of snowflakes and us. We, too, are all headed in the same direction. We are being driven by a universal force to the same destination. We are all individuals taking different journeys and along our journey, we sometimes bump into each other, we cross paths, we become altered… we take different physical forms. But at all times we too are 100% perfectly imperfect. At every given moment we are absolutely perfect for what is required for our journey. I’m not perfect for your journey and you’re not perfect for my journey, but I’m perfect for my journey and you’re perfect for your journey. We’re heading to the same place, we’re taking different routes, but we’re both exactly perfect the way we are.
Think of what understanding this great orchestration could mean for relationships. Imagine interacting with others knowing that they too each share this parallel with the snowflake. Like you, they are headed to the same place and no matter what they may appear like to you, they have taken the perfect form for their journey. How strong our relationships would be if we could see and respect that we are all perfectly imperfect for our journey.”

~ Steve Maraboli