Gifts

Among the gifts that I receive on merry days like today, it is the gift of friendship that I really hold dear. It is not even equivalent to the most expensive gift I had received.

My best friend is none other than my husband. Aside from being my significant other, he really is a friend, a best friend who loves me unconditionally. I have proven it many times (and to list them down will create a long list that would eat up the space for the other things I would like to jot down). He is Superman to me feeling like Loi Lane who said, "I’m so sure that you’re Superman that I’m willing to bet my life on it…"

I do not have a multitude of friends. I do not believe that the measure of a person’s qualities is dependent on how many friends he has. A friend to me is like a relation – one who understands my moods (good or bad), one who listens to my stories and be amused (work-related mostly, humor and grin, and… secrets!), and one who shares his (or hers), and appreciates my passions. One can find my friends as "ordinary" (in the physical sense), but wait till you hear them or experience being with them. They are a crowd of happy people, taking delight in the little things we share, laughing at trivial matters, and making fun about each other (bawal ang pikon!). They are diverse personalities; each of them has a peculiar way of expressing themselves. I love them and will cherish them with the hope, too, that they will always remember me.

It cannot be avoided that along the way we meet fair-weather friends. Some really brought heartaches because they treated you unkindly and were friends because you were of use to them or you were prosperous or popular at that time. Then they vanish or just leave you alone with no strong reason at all. Some just passed by and because their natures were very obvious, they left without being missed.

True friends are like rare diamonds, and false friends are like leaves scattered everywhere. I cannot exactly recall this quote and it came (ironically) from a gift of a fair-weather friend.