The year of change

More signs of what I've been saying all year: there is something in the air this year; it is the year of personal change. The year began with a series of breakups and divorces and the ensuing shifts in overlapping friend circles. Are you ever really just breaking up with one person only? People reorganizing, restructuring life, getting to know themselves again. Or am I just seeing it this way through my own life experience lense, because it's been a year of change and growth for me, and so I am quick to look for it in others? Or have I just been blind to the patterns and cycles of periods of time?
Two friends whom I haven't seen in much too long shared their stories with me, stories of change, and happily, growth. One has just discovered buddhism, he is waking up, learning to let go of the past, the future, to ask another he has hurt for forgiveness, to create his own joy. My heart was warmed. He's been on my mind ever since.
The other has been filling herself up with drugs and alcohol and sex for too many years for her young age. No more. Her "friends" have abandomed her, but she has found a support network, is dealing with the real highs and lows of everyday filtered through nothing. She is strong, and I believe in m heart she will do this. It has led her to endless creation!
I didn't prompt them to share, and I didn't share myself. I don't know, I didn't feel I needed to. Is this me shying away from connections and closeness again, or is it just what I felt: that I wanted to be their audience for this transformation, their ear, shoulder, whatever it is they need?