Friendship

Friend:
1.  A person whom one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection, typically exclusive of sexual or family relations.
2. A person whom one knows, likes and trusts.
3. Someone you love and who loves you, someone you respect and who respects you, someone whom you trust and who trusts you.
4. A person you know well and regard with affection and trust.
5. Someone who regards you with respect and affection, seeking your welfare and wishing you well.
6. An associate who provides assistance. An ally.

These are parts of definitions taken from different dictionaries.  Number three is taken from the Urban Dictionary.
 Having the friendship of another is a very precious gift.  A relationship built on respect, trust and love.  It is a mutual bonding that grows over time.  Sometimes, when you meet a new person, things just *click* and you know you have just made a new friend.  That in my opinion is very rare.  Having friends in our lives, is to me, something we need to work at.  It involves taking risks from time to time.  Stepping out of our own comfort zone.  Giving and receiving.  Understanding that friendship is a two way street.
In my life, I know that there is a need to nurture the friendships I am blessed with.  I have a couple of friends that even if we haven't spoken in months, when we meet up again or talk on the phone, it is as if no time has ever passed.  I believe we share this bond because together we laid a foundation of friendship between us.  We put the time and energy into it so that now when we are even apart for great spans of time, when we do reconnect the feelings are all still the same and blossom quickly.
I know that some people are very isolated.  Maybe there isn't even one friend in their life.  I am very aware that for some, this is a choice.  For others, they wished it wasn't like this.  Some turn to the internet and have found close friends this way.  It meets that need to *connect* emotionally with another person.  I have made friendships this way and taken it to real life.  There is a need for caution here because on the internet a person can decide to be anything they want to be, real or not.
Being a friend means to me that I give of myself to someone else.  It is about what I give, not what I get.  Sure, I get burned from time to time.  That is going to happen because that is life too.  It doesn't make me a bad friend or a bad person.  To me it doesn't necessarily make the other person *bad* in any way either.  It just wasn't meant to be.  I can accept that.  Not everyone we cross paths with is going to be a friend, nor would we want them to be.
When that connection is there though, it is a wonderful thing.  Friendships often bring out the best in us.  Why?  Because of love, respect and trust.  I can say to a friend that I am feeling crappy and that I know I have no real reason to feel this way.  I can trust that my statement will be received for what it is and know that the response I get in return is not going to be to belittle me.  We build one another up, not tear each other apart.