Friends

A very sweet person today told me that friendship isn't just about doing the things we most often think of as friend-things.  He said friendship is also about sharing things with one another; things we don't share with just anyone.  I had thought that friendship meant knowing each other's phone numbers or going out for coffee or ringing each other up every so often.  The problem is, I have people I care about and feel close to that I don't do those things with.  I don't have their phone  number or their address, I don't go out for coffee because they live far away and I don't just ring them up for a chat either because I know they are way too busy for chatting.  Yet I feel close to them and know stuff about them (and they know stuff about me) that only a friend would know. 

Friendship is a mysterious thing for me because I moved around so much all my life that I was never able to make and keep friends.  The internet has also blurred the definitions of friendship because it allows us to share our most intimate secrets with people we may never meet in person.  Are these people friends?  Even if they don't always be there when we need support or love?  Apparently they are friends, just a different type that is based on geographical distance and an intimacy via words.

The friend that told me this today is not far away but we don't spend a lot of time together.  Yet when he was in his most vulnerable moments, I was there to hold his heart in my gentle hands, with love, acceptance,  and comfort.  Today he held my troubled and vulnerable heart in his gentle hands and offerd me love, acceptance and comfort and I am thankful for him.  I love him because he is my friend.

Thanks, Mike.