Your front row

My colleague handed me a print-out of a story she had once received. It was lying on my desk for a while until I picked it up out of boredom and read.

This is, in a nutshell, what it said:

If your life were happening in a theatre, your life playing out on the stage, who would be in your front row? Do you have people in your life that drain you, that are a negative influence on you? Sometimes you need to love people from a distance. Sometimes people need to be on the balcony of your theatre. You should have people in your front row that lift you up, that make you feel special, that support you, and that are a positive influence in your life.

Even though this is something that I think we generally know, it encouraged me to think anew of my friendships. What do I really get out of them? Are there people that I spend time with that just make me feel like I have nothing to offer them, and that they are doing me a favor by being friends with me? Are there people who I feel obliged to be friends with when, in actual fact, I get nothing in return? Are there people I am friends with out of convenience, where the friendship is actually empty and meaningless?

Even though I have done some pruning in past few years in terms of friends, I could still identify some friendships that are empty and actually pull me down.

The question is, will I ever have the courage to end them, or would I rather have friendships that pull me down, than no friendships at all...?