High on Happiness

Posts Tagged ‘Friendship’

Love ties the hearts of friends together across all bounds of time and space.   Inside each, it places a tiny chime that so harmonizes with the other that the two make a special chord that sings their friendship throughout the ages.

Sometimes they walk together.  Sometimes their paths diverge.  But each always holds a welcome for the other, and a depth of understanding that needs no words, for they are wed to the same shared tone, and it sings itself forever within them.

It’s a tone that contains all forgiveness and that sparkles with abiding affection.  It’s a tone of laughter and joy that’s larger than the sky.

And I hear it when I think of you.  And it sounds like home.

A friend is someone who walks with you, and when the road is steep says, “Here, lean on me a while. Only a few more steps.  We’re almost there.”

A friend points to the sunlight up ahead when you’re walking in the shadows, and shows you  the pools of light that filter through even in the darkest places.

When you walk with a friend, courage and comfort walk with you.   Pain becomes bearable.  Fear moves to the side of the road.

The best in you rises higher, and the worst in you is forgiven and blessed.   You pass coins of silliness and sobriety between you.  You trade your secrets and your dreams in perfect trust.

When you walk with a friend beside you, the way before you widens and your footsteps fall more surely on the path.

To walk with a friend is to feel the ease and warmth of a summer day and to travel with the knowing that goodness and love are real.

When it comes to adding some light to your days, few things have the power of a pal.  You know, the kind who has spent a heap of days with you, seen you in all your moods and loves you anyway.

Pals know the real of you, beyond all the faces you wear.  They know when to move in close, to hold you up, to speak hard truths.

They know when to give you room. They back you with their faith and trust when you step out in new directions.

Pals bathe you in their laughter, delight in your stories, applaud your triumphs, and celebrate your moments of joy.

And they’re there for you in the hard times, too, their words full of encouragement, their hearts full of understanding.  They remind you of your strengths and slip you little handfuls of courage to get you through.

They dust you off when you fall, and laugh with you while you sort out your lessons, and never stop cheering for you, no matter what.

What greater ease, what more joyous comfort does life offer?  Whatever the fates may bring, when you’re blessed with a worthy companion, you’re blessed indeed.

The October afternoon spills its sunshine through the branches of the trees and tumbles down the hill in long shadows.  On the ground, the fallen leaves play hide and seek in the ever- changing light.

My friend and I walk beneath the gold and crimson boughs painting stories from our lives for one another.  Some of the sketches make us laugh; some make us sigh.  Sometimes we walk in silence, as friends do, comforted by our companionship.

As we round a bend in the trail, the sun backlights the gold of a maple, mesmerizing us with its glow.  “Sometimes,” my friend says, “I think God gives us glimpses of heaven.  You know, the golden streets and golden cities and all.  Just a little glimpse.  Don’t you think?”

A bit farther down the path, where everything is shaded and wearing muted colors, we spot a big toad and stop to play with him for awhile.  He’s dry and cool in our hands and his big eyes bulge as he studies our faces.  He’ll tell his grandchildren, we suppose, that once he was abducted by aliens, right here where the white ash leans against the red oak.

We linger a little while in the parking lot, watching the reflection of the treetops in the puddles and the way the sunshine spills through the branches and tumbles down the hill.  Then we get in our separate cars and drive back to our separate lives, the bond of our friendship stretching between us.

The dirt road that winds down the hill, I notice, is, like the day and like our lives, a dance of light and shadow.

Of all the joys that life can bring, nothing tops the gift of friends.  Each one’s song sings to our hearts in its own special voice, its own special way.

Friends light the way when times are dark, and make the bright times brighter.  They comfort and encourage us, share our silliness, forgive our faults, celebrate our triumphs, and are there for us when we fail.

They keep our secrets, honor our privacy, help us with our tasks, support us in our missions, do favors for no reason, and reach out just to say hello when it’s been a while.

They give us their time, and trust us with the things that mean the most to them.  They let us know that we’re alright, even when we don’t see how we can be.

They walk our paths with us and help us carry our burdens.  They know how to be silent with us, and when to goad us, and when to tease.  They know what hurts us and what makes us laugh.

They’re our sunshine and our soothing.  They’re our best mirrors, and our pillars of strength.  They let us know we’re not alone, and that we matter.  And we keep them, each one, in special places in our hearts and give thanks for the priceless gift of their love.

Good pals.  Don’tcha just love ‘em?  Those buddies with whom we feel so at ease?  What a comfort they are, what a gift, with their total acceptance and no-strings-attached love.

It’s as if life, knowing the pitfalls we’d face, built in a special support system to cushion us against the inevitable blows that would come our way.

As if by magic, we draw in a pal or two, to walk by our sides.  And yeah, they’re there in the tough times and we can count on them.  But even better, they make the sparkle of the good times brighter, the laughs deeper, the fun sillier, and the ordinary blessed.

They pull the happiness up from us, amplify it, make it more tangible, give it more heft, and it all feels as natural and easy as breathing.

They see eye to eye with us.  They get who we are.  They make us feel okay about ourselves, and make being human a good and worthy thing.

If you don’t have one right now, reach out with a smile and hello to somebody with a good face. See what happens.  And remember that pals come with four legs as well as two.  If you’re already blessed with a couple good buddies, take a few minutes to connect with your appreciation for them and for the way they draw out and enhance your life.  You don’t have to say anything.  Just feel it.  Good pals know.

Happiness sings its purest song when it flows between two hearts.  In essence, after all, happiness is the song of love.

And of all the beautiful forms it takes—romantic love, parental love, spiritual love—one of its most joyous forms is the happiness of friendship.

As friendship, it dances between the hearts of lovers and those of parent and child.  It plays its song between siblings, relatives, neighbors and coworkers, between humans and their furred and feathered friends.

The notes of friendship are notes of kindness and consideration, of appreciation, respect, delight, patience and joy.  It rests in trust and positive regard.  It overlooks flaws or finds them endearing.  It forgives errors as easily as it breathes.   It’s given with such ease.  And grounded in shared time and communication, it takes on qualities of endurance and strength that can span a lifetime and transcend long silences and spaces.

Friendship bonds us and teaches us true empathy and affection.  It warms and supports us.  It comforts and encourages.  It holds up a mirror that lets us see our own lovableness and assures us that we are not alone.

Friendship is a touch of heaven on earth, one of life’s most precious gifts.  As rough as the road may, from time to time, be, at least we have fine companions with which to share it.  Isn’t that beautiful and grand!

When my good buddy, Bob, went to the Emergency Department three days ago and they admitted him to the hospital for observation and to run some tests, I was concerned.  At 73, Bob’s as tough and hardy as they come and he does more in your average day than most men half his age.  But over the course of the last week, he’s had some symptoms that could signal a small stroke.

The doctors ran their tests and put him on a blood thinner.  And then today, to the sky-high joy of everybody who knows him, they gave Bob the “all clear,” and turned him loose.  He’s in darned good shape for his age, they say, and needs to do nothing more than take a daily aspirin.

Tonight my phone rang.  “You need anything from the store?” Bob asked.  I told him that I didn’t need a thing, but that I was sure grateful for the firewood he brought me over the weekend because my furnace wouldn’t light and with the outdoor temperature in the single digits, the fire in my woodstove was welcome indeed.  “I’ll be there in two minutes,” Bob said and hung up.

Sure enough, two minutes later, he showed up with a couple wrenches in hand.  And within half an hour, my furnace was pumping out heat.  But even better than the warmth his skilled tinkering brought to my house was the warmth that seeing him brought to my heart.

Friends matter.  Every last one of them is a unique and irreplaceable gift.

They bring us laughter and encouragement; comfort and support.  No matter how dark the road, or how heavy a burden we may be carrying, our friends bright us light and lighten our loads.

They come to us with listening ears, helping hands, rolled up sleeves and honest advice.  They see us for who we are, appreciating the good and overlooking the bad, and love us anyway, in all our moods, through all our trials and celebrations.   And for all they give us, they ask nothing but our company in return, and a simple “Thanks!”

They teach us the real meaning of unconditional love—both the giving and the receiving of it.  And there is no higher lesson.

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?