grey area.

I see most things in black and white and absolutes, but not my relationships with people.  People can't just be lumped into two categories.  There is grey area involved.  I am talking about loving a person deeply regardless of everything else.  Whether that person gossips too much, is having a child with someone you used to care about, isn't always reliable, or has more baggage than you do.  It is easy to write people off and out of your life because things get messy or don't look like what you thought they would, but that is no reason to stop caring.  
Grey area is gross and can sometimes lead to pain.  Whether that is from standing up for something or from backing down, depending on the situation.  But if you look at things in a black and white telescope you may miss the shooting star.  There is no guarantee with anything, and who would want it that way?  People may hurt you and you may hurt others, but if everyone played it safe would there be anything worth risking for?

Friendship is precious and unlike anything else, because it forgives.  You can't escape the blood of your family, but the bonds of your friends that is something entirely different.  Friendship is not something you ask for but something that is given because that kind of love runs deeper and purer than any other kind.  This kind of love doesn't make you blind to wrong doing, but instead lets you choose to forgive and accept if you must.  Sometimes when you feel lost in yourself, a friend is there to pick you up and bring you back when you forgot how truly fabulous you were.  It's calling someone when you know they've had a bad day and not quitting when they say they're fine.  True friendship is laying in a soybean field with your friend and spilling your insides about issues you would dare to speak to anyone else.  Remember, a friend is someone who knows you're smiling even in the dark. 

So why throw those people away when they disappoint you in some way and don't fit into one of two categories?  The people you love are not disposable, they should be cherished, because of course it won't all go the way it should, but in the end the very center of our existence, now that's good. 

Then, circle of your friends
Will defend the silver lining
Pain throws your heart to the ground
Love turns the whole thing around
No it won't all go the way it should
But I know the heart of life is good

-John Mayer