This is a short post (Quit saying YEAH!!!) because I spent my night surfing and reading blogs, old and new. But I’ve been pondering this recently.
When does friendship start?
You click on my blog and press like?
Is that what it takes?
I read and follow, and you come back.
We exchange a comment.
Are we friends yet?
We share an X or O
Or maybe a 🙂 or two.
Has that sparked the cord?
I pour out my heart in a post,
And you stop by to say you understand.
Is that the start?
Is it random?
Is it planned?
Is it ever the same from one person to the next?
Why do some love me, and others…
never come back?
Why do I feel connected?
Is it the pictures?
Are words alive?
Is it the words you share with others?
I don’t have the answers.
I just know.
That some of you just touch the realest part of me.
It’s not that others are bad.
It’s not that they don’t try.
It’s not that you try harder, or longer.
It just happens over and over again.
One minute I’ve never heard of you.
And the next one – you’re my friend.
Marsha Ingrao - Always Write 
73 responses to “Friendship”
I’m sending you alot of likes because I like you and the long and short of it is I’m running way behind on my replies.
LikeLike
I know!!!!!!!!! But I like you too, and I forgave you long ago. I’m such a griper that you can be sure that I would have given you a VERY bad time if I thought you were ignoring me on purpose!!! I mean on purpose that wasn’t up to my standards of importance. I think flu and moving are good enough excuses to let it slide – THIS TIME!!!!! OK, I’m getting carried away. I don’t want to work myself up to a RANT because I’m not even mad at you – just the opposite. I’m just glad you’re back! And THANKS for all the LIKES! 🙂 🙂
LikeLike
I guess it’s a matter of taste, mood, personality, sort of common interests and joy.
LikeLike
Yes, it is!!
LikeLike
This is a very good poem and very good thoughts, Funny I read this this morning, I am a bit behind, with work and everything. I am feeling so overwhelmed with things at the moment and tears are running down my face and I don’t know why. I am so happy to count some cyber people my friends and I am so grateful for it. I would like to hug you all tightly! With lots of Love Marsha, my friend from Ute x
LikeLike
Hi Ute,
You are a very dear person. Life is overwhelming at times. I’m glad you’ve become a friend. 🙂 Marsha
LikeLike
I am really hoping that one day in the distant centuries that Marsha and Ralph will become friends. A time when battles are finally fought, words are exchanged in love and harmony, posts and comments are intermingled in a dance of graciousness and mutual respect ……………. NO WAY !!! I am having too much fun. En garde !
LikeLike
Ah HA! Ralph is back! En garde, sir! Marsha Lee 🙂 Psst – everyone else (Now, I’m happy again!) AND I’m not letting him have his website back. He might think it’s locked firmly in space and time, but we all know differently!)
LikeLike
You are really asleep and still dreaming Marsha. There is no blog stealing. In fact I am the hero, as in one of those oldie movies and you are tied to the railway line with a steam engine approaching fast. Will I be able to release you in time. ??
LikeLike
I certainly hope so! Even in my dreams I don’t want to be run over by a train. I don’t even want to wake up and FEEL like I have been!!
LikeLike
You have been saved. Whew. that was close. Friends again ?
LikeLike
Were we not friends already? I’m feisty, not fickle! Haha
LikeLike
Of course we are dear Marsha. Just checking that’s all 😀
LikeLike
The only way we wouldn’t be is if you abandon me on the tracks, and let me get smushed into smithereens! Then I think it’s all over, Ralph!!!
LikeLike
No, smushing when I’m the hero 😀
LikeLike
Whew, dodged that train!!! 🙂 ML
LikeLike
You clicked with me right from the start. I never expected friendships when I started blogging. I thought it would be a one-way street. Boy, was I wrong!
LikeLike
You SURE were! There’s no avoiding it. You became a friend immediately after I read your first post! I just don’t understand how that happens, though when words are such a small part of how we communicate. Yet, your words are so sensible, and down to earth. Then the comments humanized you even more. I love blogging!!! And I adore you and your blog! I have you on speed dial! Marsha 🙂
LikeLike
And you, my dear, are a favorite for me, as well. 🙂
LikeLike
Thank goodness, Kathy. I hate unrequited friendship!!! Unrequited love is bad enough, but move that over to friendship, and there would be no reason to live!!! Wouldn’t it be awful to reach out in friendship and EVERY time be rebuffed by every person. I’ve heard that babies that don’t get held and loved enough die. I think the same would work with adults who don’t get any friendship. Marsha’s philosophical morning – before coffee rant 🙂
LikeLike
🙂 🙂 🙂
LikeLike
I love coming back because you always have something interesting to say and I love your style! 😉
LikeLike
Awwww, that is an enormous compliment coming from my favorite new-found author. Did you see that my review of your book was published by Amazon? So cool!!! My very first review. Not that they are picky about reviews. It took about 30 seconds before I got the notice that my review had been accepted! hhaha Marsha 🙂
LikeLike
Oh – I haven’t had a look, I’m heading off there now. Thank you SO much! 😉
LikeLike
🙂
LikeLike
Oh and I love that a toad now bears your name..how honoured you are!
LikeLike
I am laughing out loud. Don’t you love Autty? She is TOO adorable. ML 🙂
LikeLike
Aye, and she is a very fabulous and groovy toadie, indeed. I have known her some years now, with her aurific eyes glittering and her cool rough skin glowing in the moonlight, as I always meet her in the evening beneath the streetlamp. Aye, Marsha Lee Toadie is a bit of a noir toadie, and will catch a ride on other larger toads’ backs if danger is afoot. She is exceedingly fine and even chirps!!
LikeLike
Chirp, Chirp, Chirp, Ribbbbbbittttt (oops I burped, sorry)!
LikeLike
Haha, you should hear her chirp, it is astounding, and she vibrates as well, whilst she chirps. Ingenius defense mechanism. Imagine that happening in your mouth as a predator. This is why she has survived all these years. She’s one clever, happy-go-lucky toadie!!
LikeLike
OK, now you have to record me chirping and put it on your blog for me to repost. This is too funny! I’m getting a bit of a buzz just thinking about it! ZZZZZZTT!
LikeLike
That will now be a major goal for me to get on film! Well…not on film, recorded digitally…I wish it was on flim…oh no, there I’m trying to do it again…where’s the lime water???
LikeLike
Autty, what do you put in that water besides lime? Is the lime fermented? 🙂 Marsha Lee 🙂
LikeLike
Hmmmm and now I am thinking of that song…”drinking my vodka and lime” “look around, leaves are brown, there’s a patch of snow on the ground.” No no no, getting the lime water now, no more dawdling. Now songs are floating through the air, not good. I can see them…I don’t jolly know if it’s fermented but hoo it tastes lovely. 😉 Be grateful I’ve not just returned from the beach, who knows WHAT I’d be writing….
LikeLike
That would be WAY too much water for you Autty. You CAN’T handle water! You should know that by now. And especially lime water. There has to be an awfully lot of lime in your ocean water over on that side of the world. All that drainage. No wonder it’s so salty. You might try water up straight, Autty. Marsha 🙂
LikeLike
Here. I’ll go wild. I’ll have blueberry!!
LikeLike
We’ll see. The jury is still out on blueberry water. It’s an experiment. 🙂
LikeLike
Well, it tastes fantastic!!
LikeLike
She sounds exceptional!
LikeLike
This is so true. Sometimes I feel like I’m talking to a kindred spirit. It’s been fun getting to know you through your posts and comments and our back and forth chat. I hope we do get to meet one day. Come to Australia!
LikeLike
I totally agree! With you it was instant as well as with many of the others that you can read in my comment sections. I have made the most wonderful friends. I talked to my friend Jean the other day about going to Australia. She said it was a 26 hour flight! Yikes!!! Really? You know we could skype! That might be easier. We could write a book together! We could meet somewhere in between and only fly 12.5 hours each! OH, or you could come to California!!! Endless possibilities. Lots of love to you at Christmas 🙂 Marsha
LikeLike
Nooooo! I think it is about 14 hours from LA to Brisbane…google it. Easy peasy! Then it’s a 2 hour drive from there to our home. I do like all your other ideas too.
LikeLike
Oh that’s not so bad. Why did I believe Jean??? You’ve got to read my next post. You’re in it big time. I was going to wait until 12:00, but I just can’t restrain myself. 🙂
LikeLike
I will look NOW!!
LikeLike
This is so funny! I hope you guys think so, too!
LikeLike
Ha Ha 😀 This will get us all going…what a great idea. Oh I never knew blogging could be so much fun. I could sit at the computer all day and all night. I have set myself a limit or I would not get anything else done.
LikeLike
I know that. It’s 11:30 at night, and look what I am doing!!! I’m nuts!!! And I’m just giddy!! 🙂
LikeLike
It’s 5.30 Thursday afternoon here. I should be thinking about dinner but I’m just itching to get typing on my next post. It’s been burbling in my head for days now. The trouble with being on holidays is that everyone else is too and they keep wanting me to do things, like feed them and go out with them. Your niece is home from Sydney for Christmas, and she flew home so she has no car. This means I have to take her places…gaaaah!
LikeLike
She doesn’t drive?? I know how busy your time is when you’re not teaching. It just flies. I always saved way too many things to do during that short time, and found it just wasn’t enough to get everything done because of all the extra things. It sounds like a lot of fun, though! 🙂
LikeLike
Yes she does drive, she’s 25, but she doesn’t really want to drive my car.
LikeLike
I can understand that. I don’t know how many dents (sometimes serious) in my mom’s car. Well I’m off to bed. Talk to you soon!!! 🙂
LikeLike
Good night!
LikeLike
Of course, with the human brain being so pattern-oriented, I am sure there are little things that one instantly recognises, a phrase, the lay-out, the presentation, the way a photo is taken- but then there is energy too in writing itself. Your writing has such a positive and inviting energy. A lot of your wonderful personality comes through, and it feels like one is in conversation with you in the warm incandescent glow of a cafe, the smell of coffee in the air, and the sound of laughter- a whole experience rather than just reading words on a screen, it feels that real. And I loooove that. It really is peculiar, fascinating, wonderful.
LikeLike
Oh I love you! You make me sound so wonderful. Can I bottle you up and wear you as perfume? I love smelling like coffee and glowing like a cafe. Of course, I love food, and coffee, and laughter, and …well all of the things you said. ooooo I just love me now. I sound SO wonderful! I’d love to meet this me!!! hahaha. You are too adorable. I feel the same way about you, and I did from the very first second I read your writing. My husband keeps asking me, “Why are you smiling? What are you laughing about?” So I’ll read him a bit. But he reads my posts every day, so he knows why I love you and my other new (and old) friends as well. Most of my friends from work tell me they read my blog, but they don’t write, except my lovely, Paula, who is like a daughter to me. You would like her, too.
Your computer must be back in business!1 Thank goodness. Now when you come out here to go to Berkeley, you’ll come down and visit V and me all the time on your holidays. We’ll be like your second family. Marsha Lee, AKA Toadie:)
LikeLike
Found this entry very touching, what a beautiful poem I so relate to. I am so glad to have stumbled onto the glorious glittering landscapes that comprise your blog. I consider you a dear friend indeed, a friend well met. Well, you might have guessed that after I started naming my precious toadly companions after you- a grand honour, I should think- (Marsha Lee Toadie). I am truly grateful, indeed,
Autumn Jade
LikeLike
I am honored. Imagine having a toad named after lil ole me! I can’t wait to meet Marsha Lee Toadie. You’ll have to send me a picture I can post on my blog!!! hahahaha So much fun knowing you Smiling! Seriously! I laugh out loud when I read your posts! 🙂
LikeLike
One minute I’ve never heard of you.
And the next one – you’re my friend
Well said, Marsha. I appreciate the connectivity that allows to befriend.
LikeLike
Thank you Amy, You’ve become quite a friend this year. Thank you!! 🙂
LikeLike
Thank you for being a friend . I always feel so honored that you visit my blog.
LikeLike
Hi SC,
Thanks, so much. I was honored when I visited last night and found my name on your blog in the sidebar. Thank YOU for being a friend. It is an amazing thing isn’t it? 🙂 Marsha
LikeLike
nice thought that almost everyone feels like!
LikeLike
Thanks Soumyav. It is an amazing experience – growing a friendship, isn’t it? Marsha 🙂
LikeLike
yes very true!
LikeLike
Yeah, it’s like that….!
It would seem that though our ‘friendship’ is young, I want to return. That doesn’t happen with everyone who comes visiting…! With some we ‘click’, with others ‘not so much’….!
Oh well, you just have to do what feels right…! 🙂
LikeLike
That’s so true, Carolyn. I’m just puzzled to know, with the limited resources we have, why it happens. It just does!! Thanks for feeding our young friendship. I’ll look forward to more times together!! Marsha 🙂
LikeLike
Hmmm I like that!!
LikeLike
“Well thanks for the compliment, Mike, ” she said with a smile. We have some Akins in our area. Any relatives in central California? Marsha 🙂
LikeLike
Hey ‘woman who wears brown’, this was a nice post because it dips into the vibe of trust that we use to talk about in the office. I think the flip side would be why are friendships lost and what causes some friends to remain friends even after years of non-communication? Love your posts even though I don’t comment on them. Keep up the writing and philosophical musings! Ciao
LikeLike
Hey JJ, are you Italian now? CIAO???? Yes, you are right, but how does that trust develop when we can only use words and pictures. I have some new blogging friends that I am quickly growing very fond of (pardon the preposition), and I most likely will never meet them, nor them me, but yet, I think that trust still develops. So, my scientist friend, I ask for your expertise in that matter. How does that happen? Is it magic? Thanks for reading my blog, Jennifer. ‘preciate the comment!!! 🙂 ML
LikeLike
Yup, you’re so right about that, Marsha. Some people just click with me too, and you’re one of them. 🙂
LikeLike
Yes, I was thinking of you among the ones that just click. All the more amazing when you think that we are just sharing words and pictures, and yet something like 75% of communication comes through non-verbal. Do you think that in some cases, we get the non-verbal somehow? For example, I always picture you smiling. 🙂
LikeLike
Beautiful!! I am so glad you two have clicked this way. Had to reply here, Marsha, as I so have a whole animated, vitative, vivid character in my mind that I imagine whenever we exchange words, and it is very groovy indeed. Sir even has an idea about your voice and presented it to me and I thought it sounded about right- now if only you could have seen his performance. 😉 He also has voices imagined for the cats if they were human, but I won’t go into that, you might think he’s batty har har haw
LikeLike
Autty, I can’t imagine life without you, now!! I would love to hear Sir’s imitation of me. I’ve been thinking about doing a recording of something. I’m just not sure what I’d do. Maybe if Sir could give me a few tips!!! hahahaha 🙂 Marsha 🙂
LikeLike