WONDEROAK

(When you break-up, move on, or grow apart.)

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Sometimes you open up your heart big and wide in a friendship and you get hurt.

Maybe your paths turned two different ways. You didn’t see it coming, and it’s painful to know your futures aren’t intertwined like they used to be. You kinda always pictured you’d be together and it’s hard to let that go.

Maybe there was a betrayal and the sting of your broken relationship goes deeper and hurts worse than you can say. You trusted, and that trust was shattered. You don’t even know how to put those pieces back together again.

Maybe they just disappeared. You don’t even know what happened, but they’re gone and there’s an ache left in their absence. It feels hard to have closure when it ended so suddenly.

Maybe one of you moved away and even though you promised to keep in touch it’s harder than you thought. You want to keep things the same, but it’s not the same. You miss doing life together.

Maybe there was a conflict and even though you tried and tried to work it through, it never was fully reconciled. You go over and over it in your mind wondering if there was something you could have done differently.

Maybe you grew and your growing just wasn’t in synch with each other. You’re proud of your transformation, but you miss the connection you used to have.

There are a million and three reasons friendships can end or change.

No matter what happened, losing friends is always going to hurt.

Friendships are sacred. We let them in, we let them KNOW us. We do life together, we share our secrets and our dreams. We have inside jokes and thousands of little memories and moments that include each other. Breaking up is painful like we’re losing a little bit of “us” in the process.

If that’s you, then friend, let yourself grieve. It is hard and it hurts.

And when you’re ready, I want to say something (and maybe that day is not today, and that’s okay), but if you are, here you go:

Your past friendships do not define your future friendships. Just because you’ve been hurt before, doesn’t mean it will always be that way.

I know it’s always a risk to open up your heart again, especially after things have gone wrong, believe me I’m not discounting that. It’s hard, it’s scary. BUT, I believe with my whole heart that friendship is worth it.

Some friendships are just for a season, some friendships end in flames, but if we keep our hearts open…who knows the amazing people who will walk into our hearts next.

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If you love this, if it spoke to you, you will love mine and Amy Weatherly’s new bestselling book I’ll Be There (But I’ll Be Wearing Sweatpants)https://amzn.to/3JNnn9K