“We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

Martin Luther King Jr

King has blessed us with many encouraging quotes but today I want to focus on one of these quotes that touched me deeply. In my opinion ‘enemies’ are people who either want to be you and cannot or simply despises you for what you are. These people do tend to be your biggest ‘fans’ to say the least. They are always following your progress at every step. They possibly are more vocal about you even if negatively, than any other true fan. People who dislike you give you more publicity than your friends. Then why is it that the silence of your friends makes us hurt so much more than the criticism of your enemies?

I think it is because we as humans tend to have expectations from people we are close to, that is why it is actually not possible to be disappointed with your enemy or someone you don’t know altogether. Negative comments from a stranger may hurt but in the long term we tend to forget them, what stays with us is what our close ones say or worse what they don’t say. For me, I feel great when people give me a compliment but it feels even better when my friends do. It works the same way when it comes to silence, I would take the words of my friends over anything else. What we all need to understand is that somehow silence tends to hurt more greatly than words.

The silence of people you are close to can be rather deafening since it not only lacks support, it also lacks belief. Friends are the people who help us stay positive, keep us going, and more over cheer us in a low situation which in turn helps us to get up and get going. Don’t be afraid to show your friend what you feel and show your support, they need it more than you can imagine just like you need your friends more than you know. We tend to not have any sort of expectations from people we don’t know and on the other hand from our enemies, we expect them to be critical and negative. But when your friend stays silent during everything you go through is what makes the heart ache.

All you as a friend have to do is ask, ask if they need any sort of support. The smallest of it helps. On the note of speaking up and supporting, like and share this initiative that I have going on. My guest authors wish to see the support they deserve, ten seconds of your time can make a big difference in an artist’s life.

Jahnvi