Words Are Too Big to be Used Lightly
HAVANA TIMES – There are words that shouldn’t be used lightly. One of them is “friend”.
I always believed that friendship builds over time. I thought that the years were a guarantee; that those who had walked with me over time would also be there the day the ground dissolved from under my feet.
Life, however, has a very different way of teaching.
It only takes a call or an accident to discover that time doesn’t always create friendships – sometimes it only produces habits or convenience.
Over the course of these weeks, I’ve received hugs from people I never imagined I’d encounter. One of my husband’s work buddies who I met less than three months ago, has been there for me more than some people who’ve been in my life for years.
There were those who wrote me: “Count on me for whatever you need.” And I’m grateful for every message, every word of encouragement, because I know they’re born from good intentions. But I’ve also learned that there’s an enormous difference between saying, “I’m here,” and really being so.
And later, silence falls. A silence that hurts, because it comes from those who know our history and once held an important place in our life.
It doesn’t hurt because they owe you something. It hurts because you discover that the affection you thought was shared didn’t signify the same thing to them. I’m not writing this with bitterness, but from a place of lessons learned.
I learned that a friend isn’t the one who spent the most years at your side. A friend is the one who appears when life has stopped being comfortable. The one who doesn’t wait for you to ask for help. The one who understands that sometimes the greatest gesture of love is expressed in a simple question, a look, or a wordless hug.
This story doesn’t end with disappointment, but with a certainty: true friends aren’t the ones who were always there, but the ones who chose to stay when it would have been easier to walk away.
And that gives me peace.
That’s why I’ll keep believing in people; I’ll keep using the word “friend” for anyone who makes my pain a little lighter, my hope even stronger, and my smile more genuine (names are unnecessary when the heart already knows who we’re talking about).
Because in the end, you realize that life—even when it seems to break you—also finds a way for you to hold on with a strength you didn’t even know existed.
Sometimes it does so through miracles, and other times, through people. Through those people who show up when everything is crumbling, when you no longer have the strength to ask for help and your heart begins to get used to the silence.
Because there are times when a friend does more than just ease your pain. There are moments when, without even realizing it, they restore your hope…