Nothing But the Truth

If I could give one piece of advice to the world, I would have to borrow the words of Rabbi Akiva: "Veahavta lireacha kamocha". Basically, "love your neighbor as yourself". This sounds simple enough, but is it? In practice, I've found that some of the kindest people don't follow this when it matters. If you shut a very close friend completely out of your life, if you ignore them when they have no one else to turn to, if you refuse to consider their own situation and put yourself in their shoes and show mercy, then you are not living up to these words. No matter how wonderful you may think you are (or how wonderful I may think you are), this means nothing if you don't open your heart to others when it matters. Good friendship is not something you just throw away, and people's feelings and worth should matter more than a hurt ego. Yes, friends can screw up and we all know it, but they can also turn their lives around and come back stronger. So all I can say is when it comes down to it, the people who really care about us will still be standing with us when everything falls down. Even if we push them away, they'll come back. And if we don't have any friends like this, perhaps we should reconsider who our real friends are.