The Happiness of Friendship
I recently purchased a home gym, and despite my almost total lack of mechanical skills, I was determined to assemble it today. Just as I finished unpacking and organizing the daunting heap of parts, my pal Bob knocked on my door. He looked at the pieces arranged on my living room floor as if he were a kid who had just opened a coveted erector set for his 8th birthday. “Can I help?” he asked, all bright-eyed.
Several hours later, I had a gym. And Bob had a home-cooked meal in his tummy. He called me later and said, “I sure had fun working with you. Thank you for the great day.”
He had given me hours of skillful labor and saved me from what would have been, I realized as the work progressed, a hopeless nightmare had I actually tackled it on my own. And here he was, thanking me.
“You know,” I thought to myself, as I hung up the phone, “if I could keep only a handful of the treasures that life has given me, one of the first I would claim is the gift of friendship.”
Whether you’re sharing work or play, celebrations or sorrows, having a friend at your side means so much. Friendship makes our happiness happier, and brings comfort when we’re grieving. It binds our wounds and encourages us through our struggles. It listens and applauds and laughs and cries with us. It makes us feel seen and real. It accepts us as we are. More than that, it loves us as we are, and it helps us to love ourselves. It nurtures us and grows us. It amplifies the best in us and overlooks our flaws. It makes the good times better and the worst times endurable. It shares its knowledge and skills and humor. And it graciously receives our gifts in return.
Life is an uncertain place, filled with shadows as much as sunlight, but at least it gives us trusty hands to hold along the way.
Isn’t that beautiful?
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