You're Lucky to Have Friends

At story time last week, a woman with her sixteen-month-old daugther sat down next to me and immediately asked about Chuck - the youngest and sleepiest kid at the library that morning. As usual, when I told her he was two months old, she marveled at his size and exclaimed that it was so great that I was out and about with him claiming she never would have been able to do that. I laughed saying that when our friends asked this morning if we could come to the park and play and then head to the library, we happily said yes. She just said, "Wow. You're lucky to have friends like that." Initially her sincere comment made me a little sad...did she not have friends? Was she lonely? Was her daughter lonely? Should I have responded differently? She got up pretty quickly after our abbreviated conversation so her daughter could have a snack, and I was left thinking about her response. And our friends.

How lucky we are to have friends. Friends for every new stage of our life and friends that have stuck around through all of life's stages. Friends who know just what to say. Friends who know just how you feel. Friends who don't need the back-story. Friends who listen intenty. Friends who laugh hysterically. And friends who cry right alongside you. This excerpt from Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet encompasses all that I cherish in friendship. Indeed, we're lucky to have friends.

Your friend is your needs answered.
He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.
And he is your board and your fireside.
For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.

When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "ay."
And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;
For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.
When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.
And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.
For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.

And let your best be for your friend.
If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.
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, but 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.

- Kahlil Gibran