Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1834) once used the analogy, ‘sheltering
tree’ to describe friendship.1
Not all relationships can be regarded
as a friendship, nor can ‘acquaintance’ be interchanged for ‘friend’.
I am of the view that friend is not a random or reckless term but
is singularly assigned to persons for whom we gladly lavish our
time and patience; a friendship is born as these persons grow to
matter to each other over time. Some friends enter our lives and
stay for a short period, others occasional or are outgrown, while
others can be perennial. We also know of the devastation that can
be left behind when friendships go wrong…..