Fostering Healthy Relationships

Have you ever held on to friendships that you knew were not healthy for you? Keeping that friend around whose always negative, the friend that makes you feel bad about the poor decisions you've made, the friend who judges everyone and everything around you. Have you held onto those friendships that do not help you grow in any way, the ones that make you feel like you are being used? I know I have many days.

I can admit that I am not a good friend on many levels. I often forget birthdays, I hardly ever send gifts or cards. It's not that I don't think about it, lately, I simply haven't had the funds to do so, or that may be an excuse on my part. I simply haven't made the time or effort to make it a priority. However, my friends know that I love them and care about them and I express it in many ways. I am just trying to do better at tapping into their love language.

You know, there are friendships that end on their own, they may have only been for a season, and hopefully you learned from them and grew from them, using them to enhance future friendships or strengthen your current ones. Over the past few years I have endured some ups and many downs with those I considered to be a "friend". One of my girl scout songs just popped into my head, "Make new friends and keep the old, one is silver and the other is gold."

I have learned that most relationships will change and there are many dynamics to maintaining a healthy one. I have learned that I can love you from a distance because people change. Needs and wants change. I can love you and you don't have to be apart of my immediate circle and know every intricate detail of what's going on in my little ole world, the new and old.

I am challenging myself to make my friends more of a priority, to become aware of their needs and to show my care and concern in more ways, thinking of them first. Those I need to feed with a long handled spoon for whatever reason, I will, for my sanity, but that doesn't mean that I don't love you, just loving you different from before.

So today and everyday, I will foster healthly relationships with my friends and family, tapping into their love language and giving a little more of what they may need from me, even if that means keeping my distance. I will also keep myself open to the possibility of meeting new and different friends, ones who will teach me new lessons during this journey of life that will further enhance my character and to help me to become a better person and friend.

Smiles,
Shamina

Meet and Greet

You never know what God has in store for you.
New friends, new acquaintances, new relationships to be formed.

We’re at a meet and greet, and all of our spirits seem to be at peace…in a different place, different space, different secrets to keep.

Bought together by chance, our femininity intertwined in a dance of fellowship, laughter and stories of true blue survival.

All shapes, all sizes, all prizes in our own right! The meet and greet…we’re not here all soft and sweet. We’re here, open, honest and sharing our defeats, our conquest, our war scars.

The meet and greet. I had some reservations; some hesitations because I didn’t know who I was gonna meet.

All queens, black beauties in our glory, sittin back, chillin sharing our stories…knowledge…making things solid. The meet and greet!!!