Friendship After Awakening
I died once—
not enough for flowers,
but enough to watch illusions rot in real time.
The silence afterward was feral.
People I once called forever
vanished like smoke through my fingertips.
No goodbye.
No prayers.
Just ghosts pretending I was already gone.
But death has a strange holiness to it.
It burns the counterfeit from your altar.
And in the ashes,
the real ones appeared.
Not loud.
Not performative.
Just steady souls
arriving like moonlight through broken windows—
unafraid of the dark in me.
They did not ask me to return unchanged.
They sat beside the ruins
and called the wreckage sacred.
Awakening teaches you this:
some friendships are only meant for the version of you
that was willing to disappear.
The rest—
the rare, eternal ones—
find you after the fire.
Experiencing a personal awakening or major life transformation often reshapes our understanding of relationships. From my own journey, I've come to realize that the friendships we once cherished may not always survive the profound changes we undergo. During such times, some friends fade away, not due to malice but simply because the version of ourselves they connected with no longer exists. What matters most are those rare friendships that withstand the trial by fire — bonds that find us after the darkest moments and accept us as we are, including our wounds and shadows. These friends don’t demand perfection or a return to a former self; instead, they sit quietly beside our ruins, acknowledging the sacredness of our transformation. This process is not just emotional but almost spiritual. It teaches us the value of authenticity and vulnerability — qualities that reveal who will stand the test of time. True friends arrive like steady moonlight through broken windows, bringing calm and acceptance rather than noise or judgments. In practical terms, nurturing these friendships means embracing openness and patience, and letting go of relationships that no longer serve our growth. It’s also about valuing quality over quantity and appreciating the depth rather than the breadth of our social connections. Ultimately, friendship after awakening is about finding those who resonate with our true self rather than a facade. It’s a journey of discerning genuine souls from mere acquaintances and cherishing those rare connections that feel like a homecoming after the fire of transformation.
