There is so much to love about our glorious Mother Earth, but sadly, there is also a lot that is unjust. Across the world, peace and security are challenged by poverty, brutality and violation of human rights.
International Friendship Day is a movement formed by the United Nations to try and tackle these problems from the foundations up. The strength of friendships between individuals, cultures and countries can help to gently nudge along lasting peace across global communities. If everyone is united by the enduring bonds of friendship, the world just might become a kinder place.
This movement has made us think about our own friendships, and just how important they are for our personal foundations. We need those stable, wholesome roots to give us a fighting chance at contributing to the wider kindness picture!
But doesn’t life have a funny way of getting right in the middle of friendships? One day you meet your absolute soul-sister, you’re not sure how your existence ever functioned before them, then suddenly you’re waving them off, misty eyed, as they board a plane to start their dream job in New-Zealand (or somewhere equally as dramatic and far away).
Long distance adds a whole new level of complexity to any sort of relationship (not just romantic ones!) and can be difficult to maintain. Now that a pandemic has kept so many of us apart from the ones we love the most, we wanted to celebrate all the long distance friendships out there.
We sat down (virtually) with Jessica Harumi and her best friend, Dalia, as well as Alisa Koz and her bestie, Gabby, both pairs holding their friendships strong across many, many miles!
Jessica and Dalia had a friendship love at first sight. Dalia walked into Jessica’s first year college apartment and they both thought “I want to be friends with this girl!”. There was an instant connection between them. “I think there's an electric tension specific to young people, it can be reactively energetic,” says Dalia. “Jessica has a very complex demeanour that I find not just intriguing but enjoyable. She is so authentically herself, I appreciate that.”
From dreamlike evenings driving down the Santa Cruz Coastline, windows down and blasting ‘On The Sea’ by Beach House, or having a completely empty studio space to work creatively in together and just be, it’s clear they have a friendship that runs deep. Certainly not one to be disrupted by the nearly 4000km that separates them, now that their life paths have gone in different directions, with Jessica now living in Atlanta, US, whilst Dalia lives in Oakland, US.
“I love Dalia's energy, passion for life, emotional honesty and chaotic energy. I can tell her anything and I always feel unconditional love from her. She reminds me to always be true to myself and to live my best life.” Says Jessica.
They are both Venus-ruled star signs (Jessica a Taurus and Dalia is a Libra) which could explain the reason behind their instant connection, as well as their shared love for an aesthetically pleasing life. After three years of separation, they are hoping to reunite this summer, hooray!
Alisa and Gabby have a very 21st century friendship. Incredibly, they have never met in real life, connecting through the world of environmental and sustainability blogging and making this friendship long distance through and through. Despite their very different backgrounds (Gabby being Swedish in France and Alisa, Russian in Spain), months of intense liking and commenting on each other’s posts turned into lengthy DM discussions about anything and everything.
After a deep conversation about living in alignment with your purpose, there was no doubt that a beautiful friendship, based on mutual support and appreciation, was blossoming. “What makes Alisa so special is that she is always makes me feel like I am good enough, while at the same time encouraging me to work on myself and on my dreams,” says Gabby.
Whilst they are fabulously similar (both Leos!) it's their differences that have cemented their friendship. “Gabby’s beautiful analytical mind offers a sobering perspective to me,” says Alisa. “She sheds light on what truly deserves my attention, so I can focus on that and then move on.”
They enjoy regular glasses of FaceTime wine together, proving that with today’s technology, distance doesn’t need to be a limit on friendship. But hope one day soon they can do the weekend trip they had planned before the pandemic hit.
Whilst being physically separated from you friends can make the relationship hard, it doesn’t mean that it’s over. We simply have to adapt! And you know what they say, distance does makes the heart grow stronger… Here are a few things that the Wild Fawn Team do to keep their long distance friendships alive:
- Rebecca will always try to give her friends a spontaneous phone call, as well as regular FaceTimes over a few glasses of wine.
- Nilly doesn’t spend too much time on technology, so instead will send her far away friends little surprise gifts when it’s been a while, as well as making sure they always have a date in the diary for the next time they’ll reunite (even if it’s not until the next year)
- Sofia’s sister lives in Dubai and they arrange weekly family video calls to catchup, which really feels like they’re having proper family time (and they were doing this before it was a trend in 2020…!).
- Molly has downloaded a time zone app, to make life easier when attempting to organise group Facetimes across five different time zones, as well as spending lots of time looking at old photos and reminiscing.