Friendships in review, ca. 2007

Apart from the travels I’ve done, the amount of which is unprecendented in as far as my life has gone, my 2007 has had my circles of friendships spinning as dynamically as I could remember. Some friends have moved on elsewhere, sometimes filling me with some sense of loss. Some friends, through the travels I’ve done, I’ve had the blessing to reconnect with. And even back home, reconnections heretofore "long lost" have been rekindled.

With my several "inner circles" some have also consolidated. Though, even within these circles some reconfigurations happened. Changes in friends’ personal circumstances have somehow affected me as well. There have been the physical movements, but definitely there were also reassessments made in the realm of the invisible bind of kinships. In several instances, changes with relationships with friends involved both.

But of course, what’s been truly worth cherishing as it was refreshing was the establishment of new friendships. I’ve had the opportunity to get acquainted with new people both abroad and home. I only hope that this year would bring the blessing of sustaining these newly forged bonds, even with those abroad (though, of course, physical distance could be really challenging).

But before we hip-hoorayed for all these, there were instances of (slightly) rude awakenings from acquaintances that one way or another I’ve had to be more closely in contact. I’d say too close for comfort. In another sense, the "layo-genic" at the expense of spoiling a good but comfortably distanced amiable acquaintance level. Layo-genic - the "impressionist" aesthetic - beauty at a distance, all confused smudges up close (or as some would rather say, "papalapit nang papalapit, papangit nang papangit"). Oh well… ce’st la vie.

[Slight afterword: This is a consolidation of the many draft textpad documents I’ve created several times but not quite satisfactorily appraising the entirety of what I wanted to say about friendships in review, ca. 2007.]