On friendship

Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit. Kahlil Gibran

A lovely friend sent me the quote above. We've become friends of deepening spirit over the invisible connection of cyberspace. There's no plan, no clearly defined path to our friendship, just a sharing of what fills our hearts and lifts our spirits.

Friendship is like that. A call to be open and deep. To flow like a river, filled with endless movement into the deeper waters of life.

In my life I have been blessed with amazing friends. There's my friend L.D. with whom I shared the secrets and the sorrow of my first love. Several years ago, after about 25 years of never having spent time together since being at school in Germany, we met and spent five days at a lakeside village in the off season. The friendship that connected us in our teens, connected us still in our forties. The things that were important to us back then, the values and beliefs we shared, still connected us 25 years later.

One of the first blogs I wrote was about a weekend with my friend B.H. with whom I shared many a laugh and tear when I was at school in France. B.H. and I had kept in touch, sporadically, over the years and one weekend got together to spend time reconnecting. It was a wonderful weekend, built on a friendship that endures.

The ancient Greeks had a name for it: philia. Philia is the kind of love that exists not because of a need to love, but rather because of a strong bond that exists not related to family or progeny. It is about the connection, the thing the individuals share. Because of their focus on the connection between them, friendship endures beyond the strength of the individuals involved.

My friends fill my heart with joy. They rest beneath the veneer of a simple hello and keep connecting beyond the good-bye. My friends are the one's who saved my life when I was lost in the hell of an abusive relationship. My friends love me for who I am and always want the best for me.

There is no purpose to my friendships. There is only love and deepening spirit.

I am blessed with friends.

My life is an ever-deepening journey of spirit. When I am a good friend, when I enrich the deepening spirits of my friends, I am swimming in the waters of life, floating in the spirit of love.

The question is: Are you a good friend? Do you deepen spirit?