A rant on 'friendship'

I really don't understand some people.
A 'friend' stops responding to your messages, or responds with a huge delay (and not always).
They cancel almost every time you arrange to meet.
After a point, you also have to cancel due to illness.
But you suspect their cancelling wasn't due to illness.
They reappear in your messages with excuses and apologies after months, only to disappear again.
They don't remember birthdays and they don't ask about important events.
Basically, they don't know anything about your life in the past 4-5 years.
They don't even support your art or care for it at all.
Then, they have the audacity to claim you're good friends, and say they're so hurt because you don't consider them a friend anymore.
They cry that they will always consider you a friend.
They make a bleak attempt to meet you (telling you last minute, where and when it's convenient for them – per usual).
At last, and without any attempt for further communication, and despite you making an effort and messaging them once in a while to check in, they delete you from their social media account.

I honestly don't get this logic at all?
If you don't want me in your life for whatever reason, fine.
But don't try to pretend you care for me as a friend, pretend you're so hurt and try to guilt trip me for expressing the truth (that we're not friends anymore) only to delete me from your social media account after sometime?

Another goodbye, another future

 It's that time again, the time I hate to say goodbyes.

I have been living between Athens and London for over ten years now.

Before that it was Athens and another city for a couple of years.

Living between two cities/countries is not an easy thing to do. It can be extremely rewarding, considering all the people you meet, all the diverse friendships you form, but it can also be tremendously painful, when you form strong bonds with people, only to have to leave again. 

You lose track of people's evolution, lives and journey. Sometimes, you even lose track of your own journey.

This summer, I was standing in front of a very scary crossroad. I had just came out of a long term relationship, had barely made it through quarantine, had been accepted to study my second masters, had no job and had just moved into a new place after seeing 31 properties.

I had -and still have- no fucking clue how everything would -and will- play out. The insecurity and fear stemming from the global pandemic isn't helping either. The only thing I knew was that I will be in Athens for a month. A month-long holiday to heal, recharge and indulge in familiarity and comfort. 

This month has been one of the best months of my life. I haven't had such an amazing summer since 2013. It was all I needed and more. I had the space and time to be free, the opportunity to re-discover parts of myself and the joy of welcoming old fragments of my soul that I considered long lost. 

My friends and loved ones embraced me as always, a warm cocoon giving me the opportunity to once again go through change, and in the end come out as a new creature, ready to face the world again.

I was lucky enough to form new friendships and have wonderful new people come into my life.

I am forever grateful to the people who surround me with positivity, love and respect. I am able to move forward because of you. 

Thank you,

Lara 

Friendship

Today one word has been on my mind all day:
Friendship.

One of the noblest, the purest, the kindest forms of human relationships.

True friendship is something you can't buy nor demand.

True friendship manifests itself when two (or more) people have co-existed throughout the different trajectories of their lives loving, supporting and understanding one another.

I am extremely fortunate to have experienced true friendships in my life. I treasure each and everyone of them.

And to the beautiful souls that have gifted me their friendship, I want to say:
Thank you.