Who is standing next to you

Who is standing next to you?

The last time you left home, how many people did you say hi to? I mean sincerely, how many people are you interested in knowing what they are going through and how you can be of help? Majority of us, I noticed have become longsighted that we fail to see the very people that are next to us and around us. We talk about best friends that live out of town, in another country, in another continent; in fact, the only place you don’t have a friend is in your neighbourhood.

A while ago, I made a new friend whom I’ll call P. When ever I talk to my friend P, somehow I always end up boasting about my other friends that knows me in and out, friends that can die for me, and friends that I think were not born but dropped from heaven. Over time, I could sense a tint of uneasiness in P’s voice simply because I did not give P the chance to be my friend or express herself and walk into my friend’s hall of fame list. Realising my mistake, I tried telling P how much she meant to me but like any one of us, P did not believe me, especially when P thinks about my other supposedly perfect friends. One day, I said to P, listen:

“I have friends that can leave everything for me and even die for me (guess that’s not very true) but even if it were true, these friends are far away that I would have been long dead before they get to know that I’m in trouble. That’s why you matter to me, you can either be by my side when I’m in trouble, and if you can’t help, you can be the link between me and the people that can help. You can be my chance of survival.”

Recently, I fell seriously ill and it was not a palatable experience. In this trying time, there was a friend that physically stood by me and as you can guess…. It was my friend P.

What am I saying?, the day you fall down, you can call your best friends thousands of miles away telling them of your predicament, and you know what, the best he/she can do is to say “get up”. But the person standing next to you can give a helping hand and pull you to your feet.

My question is…. Who is standing next to you?

Its time you embrace your location and invest in relationships that will make your stay worthwhile.