My Journal has been a very good friend to me lately. I have been struggling with the loss and change of friendships in my life. There is that constant question that I seem to always ask myself, "when do you know when it is time to let go and chalk it all up to a memory?" I decided to write in my journal more often, and I feel so much better! It is so nice to just put your thoughts into a place and not feel like you are being judged. Out of my writing yesterday, I wrote something that I wanted to share. It really does not relate to one particular person in my life, but instead it relates to the feeling I always have when I lose someone that I used to consider a vital person in my life. People are changing all the time, and sometimes the people you once felt really close to change, or you change, and you aren't mad or in a fight, but life just shifts and you start going down different paths and you start seeing a familiar stranger before you. I have a lot of familiar strangers in my life and I used to be very upset about it, but I have come to accept the fact that we are constantly changing as human beings and our lives are shifting everyday! I am just thankful that I have had the experiences that I have had in my life with friendships. My life feels full and it is because of the friendships I have lost and the ones that I have been fortunate enough to keep. People will continue to come and go out of our lives, but it is a comforting thought to think of the friends lost as "familiar strangers." For me, the word familiar makes the thought of losing touch with someone hurt a little less.
"Remember how we used to be able to talk about anything? There was never a wall between us. We would laugh and cry together, but then that dark cloud came and took you away from me. Where did you go? I feel like I can't even talk to you anymore. I don't know what to do or what to say. Will it ever go back to the way things were? I don't recognize you anymore. You are now a familiar stranger that stands before me."