True friendships are mirrors of the best of yourself

Christmas is drawing near an end. It's been a wonderful end to the year, and I've had some time to do a little "soulsearching" (if you forgive me for using such a cliche'ed word?). I've done a lot of thinking about friendships throughout the year. What makes a true friend? What value do friendships have? How far would I go for my friends? And most importantly (because I am way to nice and gullable); how can you tell which friends are worth keeping and who are just pretending to be your friends because they want something from you?

They are hard questions to answer - and even my therapist tells me I have to figure it out for myself... :p That's why I've been giving it a lot of thought over Christmas. And I've come to some conclusions. Not sure if anyone would be interested in hearing them; but I don't care. If you've read this far, you're gonna have to read on ;) So here we go... Some people that I've come across in my life I would have done anything for. But on closer thought and observation they now stand out to me as lovely enough - but they wouldn't put even half the effort into our friendship as I would. And should I exhaust myself to gain their favour when they wouldn't do the same for me?

Then there are the other kind of people. The gems that sparkle and make my life better just by being there. I've been lucky enough to come across a few of them these past couple of years - and my world is better for having them in it! They share my views on creating the life you dream about, and would no doubt give as much of themselves as I would in a friendship. I wanna go for these people. I've made my choise, and have learned a lot about how to tell the one kind apart from the other. 2012 is gonna be a year of friendship for me. And to those of you who I consider part of my "flock": I love you all, and look forward to creating recordbreaking magic with you in the coming year!!

To end, I have an illustration of true friendship for you. It hit me to the point of bringing me to tears (happy ones, I promise!!) when I was opening my presents on Christmas Eve. A present from a true friend doesn't need to be expencive, prestigious or posh in any way - but it mirrors who you are as a person, and brings up the fondest memories and moments you've shared. Here are a few of those moments and mirrors that made me feel so lucky and loved: