Ties that bind

They say you don’t choose your family, but you can choose your friends. Well, sometimes, you do not even choose your friends, they simply happen to find their way into your life and then stay put forever. Distances in such cases matter as much as a grain of sand on a beach. And time matters as much as a fleeting moment of existence of a moth to the existence of the cosmos.

There are certain moments in life when you truly sit back and reflect on such relations. With happiness and sometimes sadness. When and how did this tiny seedling, grow into such an amazing and humongous tree, bustling with life and energy? It is a marvel how often we don’t even talk to these friends but when we do, it feels like not a moment has passed since we last connected. Connected here being a keyword. Because in today’s day and time, it’s a word used very lightly – “connecting for a call over Zoom/WhatsApp/Teams/etc.”, “connected through Instagram, Twitter and, Snapchat.” But how many times do we really connect with someone?

More oft than not, most of our interactions are synthetic and superficial. Even when we have the whole wide world to connect to on the palm of our hands! We be our truest selves with these few people, whom we haven’t even chosen ourselves and who have found a way in out lives and hearts just by their existence. Also, too often, we try to forge such bonds consciously. Just because we need something like that in our lives. But that’s the issue here; such relations cannot be formed out of conscious efforts no matter how hard you try and no matter how many books or quotes you read on it that it can be done. Because we aren’t talking about friendships which are mortal here, we’re talking about something that transcends the normal logic, a tree that stands tall on the face of mightiest of storms and blooms in the harshest of droughts!

Because this tree not only requires bright sunlight to grow, but also needs a healthy share of torrential rains, thunderstorms, and droughts! Only by the amalgamation of both the good and bad does this tree thrive and flourish! The best part is, one doesn’t need to be very careful around it either. You don’t have to worry about it withering away, because once the roots take hold, the tree stays alive so long as the people who had germinated it are alive.

Such a relation is golden and once found, should be prized with all of one’s might!