I can only speak for myself when I say it is easy to take friends for granted. They are always around, and if they are true friends they are always available, even if only in spirit.
If you know me, you know that I am easily distracted, easily consumed by passion, by fantasy. As I walk my path I look up to the sky and might stumble, or watch where I walk to avoid stumbling and forget to look up. Sometimes I am free, floating, dreaming, without weight. Other times I feel like I am walking with walls on both sides, oblivious to my surroundings.
When I feel freedom and unity and love, everything is illuminated, each tree dances in the wind for me, for the universe. Each drop of dew on each flower glistens with Heaven's light, and my self, my ego, is without limit, connected and overflowing.
When I am paranoid or with boundary, when I am driven by fear, I am blind to the world. I cannot see a way out, I cannot find the tools to escape. That is when friends hand me a new key, share an insight, or shine light on what I am forgetting. Even walking alone on that path, those friends are around, if only in spirit, in a bee gathering nectar, in a leaf dancing to the ground.
Thank you, friends. =D