Friday, January 9, 2009

Clarity and Joy

A handful of years ago, I returned to my homestate in the center of the Midwest. Since that time, I have pined longingly for the West Coast that I love so much. Of course, there are certain things that keep me planted right where I am presently, or I would no longer miss Oregon. I would BE there.

Then a wonderful and unexpected thing happened. A friend from long ago contacted me through Facebook and we started to talk. And talk and talk. Blissfully, a friendship has been rekindled, but even more than that, I feel like I have reached the shore of clarity and warmth. The feelings of belonging and validation are a strong elixir for the bereft emptiness that has gnawed at me for so long. The tides of disillusionment and exile carried me so far from those places in the heart that kept me going, I thought I would never make it back alive. Wise words and insight spoken to me have breathed new life and filled my sails with hope once again. This thoughtful exchange between two girls now grown has set me in a new direction toward joy and wholeness once again.

I have long believed that there is no such thing as coincidence. This is more proof for me. I have every confidence that people and situations enter my life on cue. The timing is perfect. Long has my spirit been parched and starving for nurturing and understanding on this level... Sweeter is the appreciation of this gift of friendship for the wait. The clemency is salve to my soul! The gentle grace of true friendship is transformational. Today, I remember to count my friends among my blessings...Though I specifically mention one here, there are a handful of others that have sustained me through the storms of life.


"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart, and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words."

"Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being." -Goethe

"The making of friends, who are real friends, is the best token we have of a man's success in life." - Edward Everett Hale

"The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend. I have no wealth to bestow on him. If he knows that I am happy in loving him, he will want no other reward. Is not friendship divine in this?" - Henry David Thoreau

"A person is only complete when she has a true friend to understand her, to share all her passions and sorrows with, and to stand by her throughout her life."

"Material things can't make the soul whole. The only the love, trust, and loyalty of friends can do that."

"I'd like to be the sort of friend that you have been to me. I'd like to be the help that you've been always glad to be; I'd like to mean as much to you each minute of the day, as you have meant, old friend of mine, to me along the way." - Edgar A. Guest

"We cannot tell the precise moment when a friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, There is at last one drop that makes it run over. So in a series of kindness there is at last one drop that makes the heart run over."

"If you're trusted and people will allow you to share their inner garden...what better gift?" - Fred Rogers

"A friend will strengthen you with her prayers, bless you with her love, and encourage you with her hope."

"A friend is like a rainbow. They brighten your life when you've been through a storm."

"Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joy, and dividing our grief." -Joseph Addison

"In loneliness, in sickness, in confusion-the mere knowledge of friendship makes it possible to endure, even if the friend is powerless to help. It is enough that they exist. Friendship is not diminished by distance or time, by imprisonment or war, by suffering or silence. It is in these things that it roots most deeply. It is from these things that it flowers." -Pam Brown

"A friend is one who knows you as you are, understands where you've been, accepts who you've become, and still invites you to grow."

"Choose your friends by their character, and choose your socks by their color. Choosing your socks by their character makes no sense, and choosing your friends by their color is unthinkable."

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." -Antoine de Saint-Exupery The Little Prince

"Friends know what you want them to know about you. Best friends know what you don't even know about yourself. And True friends help you build yourself from all they know"

"A friend is the inspiration in you when you have lost all hope, and they bring out a world inside of you that you never knew you had."

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."- Anais Nin

1 comment:

  1. I just wanted to thank you for your beautiful comments on my site honoring my son. I find great encouragement from the Bring the Rain site and noticed you have it listed too.

    I left Oregon for college in CA and missed my home state so very much. I thought that everything would be right if I just could return to Oregon. After 18 years I have returned and you know what, I'm still not content. My husband always says to me, "Heidi, where ever you go, there you are." He means that if I'm not content in one place I probably won't be content in the other. And he's right. I just need to be at peace where ever I am, and that's something that I've not reached yet. I pray that God will help both of us to find the peace and contentment He longs for us to have.

    Many blessings to you,

    Heidi

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