Friendship is often romanticised as effortless, a joyful connection between kindred spirits who walk through life hand in hand. But true friendship, the kind that withstands time, distance, and change, is a far more complex and layered experience. It is not merely about shared laughter, easy companionship, or common interests. It is about the quiet, unshakable bond that weathers the storms, the rawness of being truly seen, and the courage to stand beside one another when everything else falls away.

Someone once told me that friends come into our lives for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. I have been betrayed by friends, I have lost friends by moving away, and I have made new friends—though that takes time. There is one friend I swear I was connected to in a past life. She gets me, and I get her. We don’t need to speak much to understand each other, and yet, when we do talk, the conversation flows for hours. These are the friendships that transcend explanation, the ones that feel written into the very fabric of our souls.

At its deepest level, friendship is both a mirror and a witness. A real friend reflects back to you the truth of who you are, even when you cannot see it yourself. They are the ones who remind you of your strength in your weakest moments, who call you forward when you are tempted to shrink back. But they are also a witness—a quiet presence in the backdrop of your life, standing by to acknowledge your journey without judgment or expectation. To be deeply known and still wholly accepted is one of the greatest gifts friendship offers.

Unlike familial ties, which are often bound by obligation, and romantic love, which can be entangled in desire and expectation, true friendship exists in a space of freedom. There is no contract, no societal structure enforcing its continuity—only the mutual choice to stay, to reach out, to show up. This makes it uniquely precious and uniquely vulnerable. Deep friendships thrive not because they are convenient, but because both people choose, over and over again, to hold space for each other’s existence without demanding ownership.

A true friend will not just comfort you; they will challenge you. They will tell you when you are wrong, when you are acting out of fear, when you are sabotaging your own growth. This is raw honesty—it is love in its most purist form. Superficial friendships dissolve in discomfort, but deep friendships lean into it, understanding that growth often emerges from difficult truths. To be loved deeply is to be known deeply, and to be known deeply is to be seen even in our most unflattering and ugly light. Warts and all. 

Life inevitably pulls us in different directions—geographical moves, career shifts, relationships, loss. Some friendships fade naturally, not out of malice but because their purpose has been fulfilled. Others survive the distance, evolving alongside the people within them. The deepest friendships do not resist change but adapt to it, understanding that love is not diminished by space or time but rather strengthened by the willingness to continue showing up, in whatever form is possible.

There is something inexplicable about the friendships that touch us at the soul level. These are the people we meet and instantly recognise, as if we have known them before, in another life, another existence. They are the ones who enter our world and shift its axis, who see us before we fully see ourselves. These friendships are not accidental; they are the soul contracts we did not consciously sign but are bound to nonetheless.

True friendship is not always easy. It is messy, vulnerable, sometimes painful. But it is also one of the most profound experiences of being human. To love another without ownership, to stand by them without expectation, to be seen and still be accepted—this is the magic of real connection. And in a world that often prioritises transactional relationships and surface-level interactions, the depth of true friendship remains one of life’s greatest treasures. Ask yourself, can my closest friends hold me when I am in my light and in my shadow? 

I hope you say yes…