Multiplication
May 30th, 2008 by Ree Joy
Friendship is finding someone to walk with you. He might not be there for the long haul, he might only have the luxury of sharing time with you for the duration of a conversation, or the time it takes for you to cross a bridge on your way to the next town, but, by the time your walk was almost over, you know you’ve found someone who listened to your songs in the middle of his own preoccupations.
Friendship is going on with living life despite an absence. She might not write every day, she has daily routines that occupy her time, but you know whenever she takes a breather you’ll be right there in the stir of her thoughts; making her smile with the way you said something the last time you shared a chat, sending a pair of healthy wishes your way. It’s as if the words she’d written for you in some past thread were always fresh in her mind, as fresh as her heart’s regard for you. Friendship is loving life more because you know her smile exists somewhere; irrelevant that the memory of you only fills one smile in ten thousand, irregardless that her smile is directed somewhere else.
Friendship is caring more because he’s there. Your regard for others and their welfare gains significance, and momentum, with knowing someone cares for you. Knowing you care for someone. You can never be with one particular person exclusive of everyone else. You can try, but you’ll destroy more than you’ll be able to build. Someone else’s regard of you and your efforts will improve your own capacity to care, and broaden your own ability to give.
There’s more.
But most of all, friendship is a twin.
And even if there is but 1% of it in anything… in everything… it will be friendship still… most cherished.