Flexible Friendships

From the Gaian Tarot, the Two of Cups; from the Goddess Oracle, Vila:

          I've always had pets, because I enjoy the unconditional love they offer in a relationship. Human companionship, however, is a bit more difficult. Often we come into a relationship with an expectation of what we think we're going to get out of it, not what we're going to bring to it. But good friends aren't just those who tell us what we want to hear and go along with whatever we want to do, but those folks who can tell us with gentle honesty what we need to know and push us beyond our comfortable cocoons. I need to be able to look outside my own personal interests and opinions, which can be helped along by having friends. Vila is a Eastern European nature spirit whose energy moves through the earth in various forms:

I am flexibility

for by changing my form

I freely flow with whatever comes my way.

How many friendships are lost because we have expectations built around them? If someone changes their belief system or priorities, does that mean I have to drop them? Not if they are comfortable allowing me to maintain my own values without judgment. And by sticking with them (being flexible and open in my thinking), I might just gain a deeper understanding of what is important to them and why. If I can accept them without prejudice, I might learn to see the world through a wider lens.