I’ve sometimes heard people say that it’s really difficult to make new friends as we get older. I’ve been lucky enough to have friendships that have lasted 20 years or more, and I’ve also made new friendships as an adult – some even after I turned 40. I’m also fortunate in that I continue to have opportunities to make new friends. I don’t expect every encounter to end in friendship, but I always try to stay open to the possibility.

As adults, we know how painful it is to have a friendship end. We’ve experienced betrayals, heartaches, losses of all sorts. It’s really hard to stay open to people when we know just how much people can hurt us.

However, as adults, we can learn to protect ourselves from those hurts, and we can learn how to heal ourselves from the hurts we receive. If we always expect people to hurt us, we will never allow people to get close enough to begin new friendships. If we never heal ourselves from past hurts, we will never open our hearts to the possibility of new friendships.

Friendships end, sometimes painfully. But friendships also begin, joyfully.

Let’s embrace friendships, old and new, from the past, the present, and the future.