Jorge Guillén says in one of his poems

Friends. Nobody else. The rest is jungle.

Making friends is tiring. Having friends is relaxing.

I always begin this way, because friendship is a conquest, a journey with many unexpected twists and turns. It demands dedication, patience, and the ability to wait. It requires refining one’s character and smoothing the rough edges that wound upon contact. Flexibility and tolerance in matters of opinion refine our approach and allow us to coexist without losing our identity. Facilitating this shared journey is a healthy and hopeful exercise.

Friendship dwells in the human heart and is a two-way love that inherently demands reciprocity. It is the encounter between two unique and unrepeatable universes: an “I” that opens itself to a “you” to build a “we” that unites without confusing.

Friendship enriches us through our collective strength and dignifies us through respect. From “I and you” arises a “with you and with me” that generates life and meaning. Friendship reveals the best in us: our shared uniqueness.

One can live without parents, children, or siblings, but not without friends.
Parents can be friends with their children without ceasing to be parents; children can be friends with their parents without forgetting their parentage. In this balance, the relationship reaches a sublime level of friendship. Marital love, too, is rooted in friendship: One day, I read the caption of a photograph:

“My husband, my friend, my guardian angel, my joy and my castanets. Thank you for already being by my side!”

A doctor and his patient, a teacher and his student, a lawyer and his client can develop a friendship through the professional relationship without confusion.

Friendship is openness and encounter; it is the art of mature dialogue. It is knowing how to listen and understand, and it is revealed in forgiveness.

Today, we confuse friendly treatment with true friendship. Social media calls followers “friends”; companies address us by name “to speak to you”…

Friendship is from a different galaxy; it is forged through dedication and sculpted over time.

A friend is there even when you don’t know you need them. They celebrate your successes quietly and rush to your side when you fall. They are a faithful witness to your story and a mirror in which you see yourself reflected.

Making friends involves risk. Opening your heart is difficult; it requires moderation and discernment. If we confide in the wrong person, the confidence is lost, leaving only emptiness… Why did I ever speak? But when the confidence finds rest, it returns to us enriched and enriching. This openness makes us vulnerable. However, this fragility, embraced and shared with a friend, makes us strong: only friends heal wounds.  They forgive us without justifying, they lift us up without judging. Friendship shapes the individual and sustains the highest ideals. Perhaps that’s why the world tries to degrade it: because true friendship builds walled cities that protect.

Friendship needs time spent together. Intentional, planned time. Shared life, woven memories. That’s why it often blossoms in ordinary places: school, university, work, the very journey of life itself…

It is there that the “we” is cooked, slowly.

A man lost in heartbreak begs for glances that acknowledge him for who he is. If he doesn’t find himself in that gaze, he seeks ways to numb his longing and lowers his standards, masking his absence with alcohol, drugs, pornography—liquid ways of escaping heartbreak.

We all travel the same path. We endure the same storms. Likewise, we don’t always share the same means, but we do share the same horizon. Freedom is at stake. Friends add color to the journey with a GPS that updates daily.

Friendship is a virtue that blossoms with forgiveness. Understanding needs words and silences; human relationships need presence, voice, and resonant silence to know we are not alone, and they also need attentive ears.

“If what you’re afraid to tell me is painful, don’t hesitate to numb my pain with yours, and together we’ll leave the wound clean and healing.”

(“The Self and Its Metaphors” Rosa Montenegro)

Friendship is prayer for those who believe. To pray for a friend is not to repeat their name, but to bear their burden and offer one’s own darkness so that it may be returned to them in light.

To begin and to begin again

(to forgive and to forgive myself)

The journey is neither easy nor quick. Limitations and imperfections clash; timings sometimes don’t align, and misinterpretations occur. All of this can cause pain: not knowing how to express oneself, not knowing how to think, lacking parents, lacking a job, lacking health… all of these are obstacles I must face, but they are not who I am. Wounds exist at every stage of life, but they don’t define me.

The dislodged pieces have edges that scratch each other, leaving scars: sadness, resentment, hopelessness, physical pain, and suffering from the soul…

In one of his rhymes, Bécquer describes how pride prevents forgiveness.

A tear appeared in her eye.

And to my lips a word of forgiveness;

Pride spoke, and she wiped away her tears.

And the phrase on my lips expired.

I go one way; she goes another.

But when I think of our mutual love,

I still ask myself, why did I remain silent that day?

And she’ll say, “Why didn’t I cry?”

Forgiveness is the key that unlocks your mental prison, freeing you and giving you control.

Because the more anger or rage you have towards others, the more power they have over you.  (Viktor Frankl)