Radical Friendship

Exploration of what it means to care, connect, and unlearn together

Not a slogan

Some words sound too simple to matter

Like a friend

But in a world that prioritizes competition over connection

Being a true friend becomes a radical act

Bell Hooks believed that friendship could be a form of politics

Not in the partisan sense, but as resistance

A daily choice to show up, stay soft, and care

In a culture that often doesn't

Peace begins in presence

To make peace in the world, we often think big

But what if it starts small

In how we pause to listen

In how we ask, not assume

In how we show we care without needing to win

This journal is not about being liked by everyone

It's about learning how to truly like

How to be with

To offer presence as a gift, not a tactic

Friendship is a verb

We often imagine friendship as something that happens to us

But it's also something we practice

Like kindness

Or truth

This journal invites you to notice where you're generous and where you're guarded.

Where do you connect from curiosity, and where do you close off

There are no grades

Only growth

Unlearning isolation

Many of us learned that strength is independence

That need for people is a weakness

That vulnerability is unsafe

But unlearning is possible

We can learn to say, "I'd love your company," and not hear that as a failure.

We can write new scripts for how friendship looks, sounds, and feels

Conversations to carry

What kind of friend would I be if I stopped performing and started listening

Where does care show up in my daily actions, not just my words

What walls have I mistaken for boundaries

Who do I want to be seen by, and why

Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation

Healing is an act of communion

Bell Hooks

Extend the page

Choose one prompt from the journal

Write your answer not as a task but as an offering

To yourself

Or to someone you wish to know more deeply

Maybe even send it

Let friendship be an act of peace that you practice

Make Friends No War is available as a printable journal

You can find it in the digital shop for writing, for presence, for gentle connection