A relationship is normally based on friendship and trust, it can also be defined as how you interact with someone, your view of them, their view of you and how this affects the way you deal with each other. It is when two people are completely open with each other about every aspect of their lives with no fear of being judged. It's the one person you can cry in front of without having to worry if he (or she) thinks your weak.
To me, without friendship and understanding there isn't really a way for two people to have a strong and healthy relationship. Honesty is also very important, it is the essential basis of all our dealings, whether it is with are lover, friends or relatives. I also think that relationships make us both vulnerable and secure; nothing really changes. The same dynamic remains throughout our life: whether in a friendship, a romance, in a marriage, as a daughter or son, as an employer or employee - whenever anyone else is involved in our lives, that puts us in many types or levels of relationships, it can be friendly as it can be intimate.
No relationships, no life. That is how crucial it was in those first years of our tiny lives. We didn't know whether our parents were in a marriage or not. It didn't really matter. What mattered was whether someone, anyone, was in some type of maternal-paternal relationships with us. Marriage may have helped or hindered, but what was essential, was that someone cared enough to be in some type of committed relationships with us. .
Today, whether you"re a female or a male, it is very common for someone to share a friendship with someone who is deer to him or her. It can be you"re mom, a grandparent, someone you see at school or at work. Two people can also share a special friendship, like a best friend. That person is easy to talk about the personal problem we may have in life, she (or he) is always there when you need some advice, just like a mother is for her child.