It has taken me a while to write this post.

Three years to be precise.

That is when my best friend of 23 years decided to ghost me.

If you don’t know what ghosting is it is when someone ignores your emails, blocks you on all social media and refuses to talk to you. Basically it is extreme passive aggressive behaviour for those that hate confrontation.

 

To this day I still don’t know exactly what went wrong. For months afterwards I tried to guess the reasons and drove myself crazy. In the end the reality was for whatever reason she did not value our friendship as much as I did.  You can’t change people. You just have to accept the situation and move on.

 

Although initially it hurt me to my core and I mourned the loss of our friendship like a death in the family it challenged me to discover new friends.

Why Losing My Best Friend Was One of the Best Things That Ever Happened To Me

I’ve been very lucky that blogging has afforded me the opportunity to meet many wonderful like minded people all over the world.

It wasn’t but a few weeks after this happened that I chose to travel overseas by myself and meet Anja, Greetje and Sylvia in the Netherlands.

I’m so happy I did!

It was an adventure I’m sure I wouldn’t have taken alone prior to losing my friend. I relied too heavily on that relationship.

Looking back my Mom always said that friends were important, not just one friend, a basketful of friends. Naively I always said that I didn’t need a basket when I had one really good, true friend. Proof that one should always listen to their Mom.

Now I’m gathering a basketful of good friends all over the world via blogging.

Each person is a universe of discovery.  Some are vastly creative, others are skilled business women, others just make me laugh till I cry.

 

My personal life enriching experiences and adventures have expanded a thousand fold after losing that one friend.

In losing one friend I gained the confidence to seek out new friends and take risks again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we age it isn’t easy to find new friends or make new connections however blogging has been my saviour in that regard.

 

So as they say, in life when a door closes a window opens and in my case about ten windows opened and there are many more waiting to be opened.

 

Losing my best friend of twenty-three years forced me to open myself up, allowing new people to enter my life. My new friends challenge and inspire me more than my old comfortable friendship would have. My mind and heart have grown in so many ways I never thought possible.  I never could have imagined something I initially thought was so devastating would turn out to be one of the best things that ever happened to me.

Life is full of surprises.  If we look beyond our initial pain from an unforeseen difficult situation and open ourselves up to new experiences, the world is rich with possibilities.

 

 

At this stage in your life do you have one best friend or a basketful of friends? Do you rely heavily on that one relationship? Have you ever been ghosted or lost a friend after a long period of time?

 

Linking up with the wonderful Patti at Visible Monday.