Poetry reading: Making friends when you’re old (or young) is hard
/
RSS Feed
It’s not easy making new friends but when old friends move or die or cut contact with you. Two poems with some ideas that might help at those times.
Good advice for those losing friends who respond by shutting themselves away as described in your poem and the astute advice of the young 5 year old. Isolating oneself is just one way in which older people are unable to make new friends. 😉
My experience has been quite different as has been that of others expressed in their blogs I’ve encountered who have been outgoing, becoming socially active to disappointingly discover opening the door to friendship occurs much less readily than when we were younger. Finding new friends has proven to be easier said than done which was never true in my life before, just as other older people have written also. This has nothing to do with personality shortcomings. It does have to do with life circumstances of the older adults who still have their circle of friends and lack time, energy or interest in expanding the group, some who are able to only mostly be involved with local area family members, many who are caregivers unable to make time for others to name a few complications I’ve discovered.
FWIW now, during these pandemic times here in the U.S., social gathering places cease to be available, seriously limiting opportunities for making physical contact with potential new friends. Even the once interaction with staff in businesses we once frequented is limited. Virtual friendships now seem to be the order of the day, even more so than pre-virus. So it is that we may enjoy friends in those written words of poetry and other written forms even more … and blogging … since I eschew most of the other popular social media forms. 😉