Friends

       
      

         I sat across from her at her kitchen table.  Drinking coffee.  Petting her dogs.  We are so much alike she and I.  Days apart in birthdays.  A few years apart in age.  We are like minded; sharing same interests in spirituality, politics, art, many other topics.  I love when I find a friend like this.  Reminds me of how special people, and I as one, are. 
          We talk about everything.  She shares how she has of late been feeling a little lost and exasperated with herself.  She seems to have lost her focus.  I support her, and encourage her, to take her time, appreciate the now, I tell her the universe has a plan for her.  I tell her that how she feels is appropriate and its ok to feel it just don't get mired in it.  We all feel like that some times.
           We discuss how we both sometimes feel frustrated with people in general.  How we don't understand why society cant just embrace being more loving, kind, compassionate.  Why do so many people choose to be judgmental, and by us stating all of that does it make us judgmental also?  We laugh at ourselves. 
          She shares an encounter that she had with someone and how she found that the person she was referring to changed her perspective, not in a good way.  Later she nicely told that someone how she didn't want to engage in that bad behavior anymore, now they are great friends.  I ask why is it that we are afraid to speak honestly and respectfully to people who use bad behavior to change the world?  Does us choosing not to speak up make us as bad as the people shouting ignorance and hate?  Why is it that the loudest people seem to be the most ignorant...then I feel judgmental again.   We chuckle again.
           We speak of human nature.  How human nature will turn us toward judgmental thinking.  How the challenge is to examine it, understand what we are to learn from it, and be compassionate to ourselves, and others, because of it.  I shared that I now, but not as often as I wished I did, will not engage in bad behavior and bad relationships.  I shared how I recently told some one very close to me, "I love you and I want to feel good about you so I am choosing not to engage in this portion of our relationship any more."  She looked at me and said that that was profound and is something that anyone could use with a multitude of people in lots of different circumstances.  She said," you should blog that." 
The Pith of the Matter;  Ok  :D
Namaste  Emaho Peace out 

 

“Don’t walk in front of me… I may not follow
Don’t walk behind me… I may not lead
Walk beside me… just be my friend”
― Albert Camus

tags: friends, friendship, misattributed-albert-camus

 

“Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.”
― Mark Twain

tags: books, contentment, friends, friendship, life

 

“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life

tags: empathy, friends, friendship, inspirational