Reflecting on Friendship

We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over. -- Samuel Johnson

Reflecting on friends and on friendship tonight. With the kids. A great discussion.

What makes a a friend become a very close friend, a kindred spirit, to quote Anne of Green Gables?

Hard to tell. I am someone who makes friends, who loves people and being with people, but who only occasionally finds a close friend. You know. Those friends with whom I can truly be myself, truly love, as much as I, with my issues, am capable of love; without fear of judgement, without fear of vulnerability.

This year, I had the opportunity to re-connect with an old friend.

It was as though we gathered the threads of yesterday and kept on sewing our friendship. Despite the passing of time since we last saw each other. Despite the little rips and tears and worn spots of the fabric of our friendship.

I think it was the connecting of souls.

What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies. -- Aristotle

I have been blessed. In Sydney, I have come to form friendships and share memories with some , with some friends close to my heart and soul.

And my experience of re-connection with my other friend reminds me that, often? every now and then?, certain friendships are forged. Certain friendships that withstand the tyranny of distance; the pull of time and years, of sorrows and misunderstandings.

Your souls have been touched, have been sewn together in some fashion, and, regardless, regardless of other experiences, you are friends forever.

Yet, to be a true friend I must also be worthy of this friendship.

I must love. Without calculating cost. Or inconvenience.

My love of God should show, should be visible, in my love of others.

We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become. If we love things, we become a thing. If we love nothing, we become nothing. Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ, rather it means becoming the image of the beloved, an image disclosed through transformation. This means we are to become vessels of God´s compassionate love for others. ~ St. Clare of Assisi