When you ask people, "Are you in a relationship?" They will reply, "Yes, my boyfriend and I have been together for 2 years now" or they will say, "No, I broke up with my boyfriend a couple of months ago." I'm not sure how it happened, but somewhere along the way we have redefined the word "relationship" to mean only a romantic relationship. But there are many other relationships we have. We have sibling relationships, parental relationships, and we have friendships.
Yet, how often, do we treat our friendships as a lesser relationship than the others. Now, don't get me wrong. Family needs to take priority in our behavior. One must never neglect spousal or parental responsibilities for a friend. But rarely do we find such a conflict. What I mean here is that we should not treat them as less important than those other relationships.
This is expecially true for singles. Sometimes we feel deprived of companionship because we are not currently married or dating. But are we really deprived? Do we not have friends to talk to, to go to lunch with, to take in a movie or ball game with, to just hang out with.
Of course, we must be careful to nurture those friendships even when we are in a romantic relationship. Any relationship will die with neglect. We cannot expect to ignore our friends except when we are not dating.
I have been guilty of saying as a committed single that I am walking this path alone. That isn't true really. I have others walking it with me. I have family and I have friends. Companionship is just a phone call away. I just need to remember that when I think that I am doing a "solo act." Those friends of mine are standing in the wings just waiting for my signal to come on stage and join me in the great song of life.
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