Friendships and promises

My mother once said: Be cautious of who you walk with.

Now as a mother myself as I prepare my son for his world adventures, this bit of wisdom carries the same somberness as the day when my mother shared them with me. One of the challenges of being a work from home mom.. is separating work from home. I recently went through the test of friendship, which gave me live examples to share with my son and provided material for me to converse with regarding these topics.

I also learned that just because you work with someone… it does not necessarily mean that they are “friend”. Quickly I learned that as long as I was paying… I had friends. Once the ‘work’ stopped, so did the friendship.

Earlier in my life it would have taken me long to recover from something like that, but recent experiences while working with people that proclaimed friendship have taught me valuable lessons.

The lesson about friendship and money arose when (another person that worked with me) confessed he was struggling financially and that he would need to borrow money, he said he would return it in 6 months. It’s years later and I’ve never heard from him …nor the borrowed money. Ah… so I told my son, a fool and ‘her’ money would soon be parted and has affected my decision about lending money not backed by collateral.

As for me..Valuable lessons learned:
~ there are work friends and then there are …real friends.
~ friends stay with you even when the money is gone.
~ always take collateral when lending money.
~ nothing matters, unless it is a personal matter.

and if anything has a thing to do with you, then Everything IS personal.

Alas, now I see the two paths we walk: one of youth and beauty, the other of age and wisdom. For some reason these two just do not mix.

Daisy Says: Be a friend indeed.