I get by with a little help from my friends

From My Perspective

By Toni Walker

There is an old Beatles song that was written by Billy Shears entitled “With a Little Help From My Friends.” The first verse says: “What would you think if I sang out of tune, would you stand up and walk out on me? Lend me your ears and I’ll sing you a song, and I’ll try not to sing out of key. Oh I get by with a little help from my friends, Mm I get high with a little help from my friends, Mm gonna try with a little help from my friends.”

Throughout my 40 years, I have learned that, pretty much no matter what I am going through, there is pretty much nothing I can’t get through when I have friends by my side. I have had friends help me through some of the roughest patches in my life, and as I look back on those times, I know that it was the friends who helped me make it through.

Now, these people may not always stay in my life after a situation, and that is ok. There is a saying that people come into (or leave) your life for either a reason or for a season. Sometimes, they are only there for a season, meaning they are here when you need them, and then gone again. There are also those who are there for a reason. Maybe that reason is to teach us to love ourselves, or to love others. Or maybe, they are here to teach us how not to treat people. Either way, our friends are a big part of our lives.

God has blessed me over the years with many great friends. Some have come and gone, while others have come and stayed. Some, although we may not talk or get together often, when we do we pick right back up like old times. Still others I have to see two or three times a week, at least, because there is a bond there that no one else understands. Though all those who I call friend have had an impact on my life in one way or another, it is that last group with which I am the closest now.

In this group, I have found my closest confidants, my goofiest comrades, and my chosen family. It is because of them that I push myself, I trust in myself, and I believe in myself. I can go to them no matter what is going on in our lives, and we can put aside the daily struggles and cares of life and just be. We can laugh, cry, scream, or run…whatever we need, and know the others will be right there with us.

If you have a group of friends like this, cherish them! With friends like this, they really don’t care if you sing out of tune. They only care to make sure that you sing! Chances are, you mean as much to them as they do to you. If you have not found a group of friends like this, I pray you will, quickly. But most of all, I pray that you will be that type of friend to someone else. Then, you will know what it means to “get by with a little help, from your friends.”