Friendship requires stepping out of yourself

Friendship is not sustained only by affinity and good times. A moment arrives when it asks you to step outside yourself: listening when you are tired, making a call, changing a plan, or being near when you don't know what to say. Those gestures are not wasted time. They expand the heart and teach you to love in a way less centered on what you feel like doing. Charity becomes real precisely when it comes time to pay a small price. Balance is also needed. Stepping out of yourself does not mean allowing yourself to be used or living without boundaries. A healthy friendship can ask for sacrifice and, at the same time, respect your rest and duties. Loving well is not disappearing: it is making real room for the other.