Do you love your friends ?

[DillyHilly]

Just that really , if you have close friends, would you say you love them ?
I don't mean in actually say it ( perhaps you do ) but feel it ?
I'm not massively into having lots of friends , never have really as probably a bit of an introvert , but I could not say I've ever liked them enough to feel I could see them as someone I'd class as liking enough to love.

Thinking of my 5 closest friends.. Yes, dearly. They’re wonderful people, I just adore them. We’ve been through a whole lot of life together, and we’ve remained such good friends through everything.

Yes, my closest two I definitely do.

I've just noticed you monitoring someone else's vocabulary usage. Who died and made you Word Monitor?!

I do love my friends, they're lovely people who don't nitpick what others say. There.

I don’t love my friends the same as my DH and DC or sisters but I value them greatly and I am so glad they are in my life. I couldn’t imagine life without my friends.

Yes I love my closest friends dearly. And I tell them so, we’ve supported each other through all sorts, marriage, divorce, loss of parents, and they are amazing people who I am lucky to have in my life.

Absolutely yes. I was a single parent for years, and my friends were and still are my family. My best friend is the absolute best and no one gets me like she does. I have a wonderful partner now, but my friends will always be massively important to me. They were there first, and they'll always be there.

Same.

Yes, I mean I have friends who are people whose company I enjoy as and when we manage to meet up, and friends who I really like but yeah there are a few friends I love.

I’d say there’s 2/ maybe 4 I feel that way about. 2 who I’ve been friends with 20 years plus, one is my best friend and lives local to me we see a lot of each other, chat on WhatsApp most days and she basically feels as much a part of my family as my siblings etc. The other now lives at the other end of the country but I absolutely love the bones of her and really look forward to when we get together, we’ve lived together and travelled together etc in the past and I actually don’t think there’s anyone I get on with in the world better than her really - including my husband in that! We just gel really well and literally never been a cross word between us.

The other two are friends of even longer standing, from school times. We don’t see as much of each other these days and that’s what makes me wonder if I could say it of them as we’re all a bit equally rubbish at making the effort. But I guess we do all still love each other at heart, we absolutely would be (and have been) there when it counts and whenever we do get together it’s always like no time has passed.

Me, I'm more Labrador style loving everyone. Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet.

Yes absolutely. My closest friend and I have been friends for almost our whole lives since nursery school. She is my second sister and her mum is like my second mum and vice versa. I would say I loved her like a sibling.
Shes probably the only one I’d consider equal to family though, I adore my other close friends but not as much as family or her..

Im not sure, tbh, I'm worried how much I love my cats, makes me question if I actually love any humans that much.

My closest friends - yes. There are 2 I can think of, who don’t actually know each other, but they have both changed the course of my life at different times.
I keep in touch with them although we now live far apart , and we always tell each other that we love each other when we sign off.
i am lucky to know these fabulous women.

This is what you said:

Yes, I'm very fond of them, mostly.

No. I only love my husband and parents. And I was acutely aware that I didn't miss my parents for one minute of the entire lockdown experience, when I didn't see them for months and months on end, which left me feeling "what IS love?"
I know I love my husband deeply, but i cant express what it feels like. Do I love my parents? I assume so. I'll be devastated when they die. Is that it?

Yes, unconditionally. I have half a dozen very close friends that I would do anything for, and I know they’d do anything for me.

....Oh and I feel like my heart might stop when I think of my dog dying. I love her so deeply, its scary. Is love all about familiarity?

No... I really really like them but I don't love them. I love my family and my children

One. She would and has done anything for me and vice versa.

Yes I do. Only my closest three friends but I definitely do love them.

I don’t have many friends but the ones I do have, I absolutely love them

I have done, it's been like a bereavement when some friendships have ended. Current ones I like a lot, would do a lot for. Love? No.

Some of my closest friends, yes. I've friendships going back 30/40 years in some cases.

I love my cats too!

I am in my forties, I have three close friends who I’ve know since nursery/school and I genuinely love them. They are absolutely family and we treat each other as such. We’ve shared so many happy and sad experiences and now our children are doing the same.

(Edited to correct spelling mistake)

@VanLife33 I am so very sorry for your loss. To die so young and leave such young children is a tragedy.

I'm less close to one of my friends, the others I feel more deeply about. I said mostly to acknowledge that I don't feel equally about them. Why are you picking at this, it's so tedious? It doesn't matter, does it?