Give Thanks For Your Friends

I have been thinking a lot these last few weeks about friendship.

There are many kinds of friendships that inhabit our world. Some are casual and specific to time and space. Some are deep and profound but also a product of where we are in the journey. These friendships leave lasting impressions but are not necessarily ones that will continue for years. Then there are those relationships that have been part of your life from early childhood. While the intensity of those friendships may vary from time to time they are consistent and you know that, on some level, those friendships will last to the end. Throughout the journey there are also those who enter at different times and instantly become connected, growing with you as you grow. Each friendship rests in a sacred space in your life and contributes to who you are.

A Friend Request

On August 10 I received a friend request on face book. It was a voice I had not heard in 25 years. As teenagers we were best friends. In early adult years and for a brief time in the military we were constant companions. We laughed and cried together, rode the roller coaster, walked the beach and shared our dreams. Then our paths diverged. I moved to Halifax to begin my journey to ordination and he was deployed. The years passed and our lives moved in very different directions. It was a friendship that held dear memories.

Then, three words on a computer screen

“How are you?”

and 25 years melted away as if they were nothing.

That was just three weeks ago and once again we have laughed and cried together, had moments of misunderstanding, and then the deepening of a bond.

Kahlil Gibran in “The Prophet” writes

“Your friend is your needs answered. He is your field in which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving. He is your board and your fireside…. For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed …And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit…. For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill? Seek him always with hours to live. For it is his to fill your need, not your emptiness. And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.”

Those People in My Life

So today, I give thanks for friends – those people in my life who have deepened my spirit and with whom I have had hours of life! I give thanks for those who journey with me knowing when I need space and when I do not; who have shared laughter and tears; supported my dreams and told me when perhaps I needed a reality check.

Give Thanks for Your Friends

My prayer is that you take a moment today to give thanks for your friends – the people who are a source of strength, comfort, joy and love and without whom your life would be less complete.

Blessings
Valerie