Are friends as important as family?
Family are given to you but friends you get the opportunity to choose.
Family often love you unconditionally and stay with you throughout your life.
Friends often stay for a period in your life and then drift away. However I have noticed really close friends stay for the duration.
Some friendships are as close and as strong as a blood tie. They can be based on a common interest or less obvious things like the same sense of humour, life values or the joy of giving and receiving.
The picture of the three flowers represent me and my two closet friends.



Toxic managers can be challenging and also detrimental to your calmness and well-being. I know this from first hand experience. I was a senior executive successfully delivering a business change programme but I had the meanest manager I had ever experienced. He was a short New Yorker who loved to shout and belittle people. He did not respect that I lived in a different time zone from him and would call me late into my evening. Normally a confident person, my self-esteem and confidence hit rock bottom. It was a very unhappy period in my life.
In our busy 21st century lives, there is a trend towards families eating their meals from trays watching TV rather than sitting to a table and facing each other. Likewise teenagers, if allowed, will take their food and eat in their bedrooms.
I came across this article,
Personal development is about improving your skills and strengthening your relationships at home and at work.
Challenges arrive in your life to provide you with opportunities to learn and grow. Through them you can learn important life lessons such as improving your communication, overcoming jealous love or learning to receive as well as to give. However when faced with a new challenge you may feel daunted. Know the feeling?