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 with hold
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.