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Theresa's Tidbits: Friendship is a real treasure
Theresa Seraphim
for Spotlight
A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked. – Bernard Meltzer
Today, March 3, my friend Viola is celebrating her birthday. I have known her for, literally, my entire life, and can’t imagine this earth without her.
Viola’s joie de vivre, her sense of humour, her sociability, the way she has met and overcome the trials in her life, all show me ways of living my own life. Many times in the past, when I was ready to sink into the mire of self-pity, she would remind me of how much I do have, and that she would always be there for me.
And she has been. She’s in B.C., so we communicate mainly by phone. When we do talk, we can pick up where we left off with no awkwardness.
Viola’s birthday gives me the opportunity to reflect on what friendship means. Bernard Meltzer, I think, says it well in the above quote. Everyone is “slightly cracked”, and true friendship involves being able to accept the other, with all of his or her foibles. Indeed, it means being able to accept one’s own weaknesses and idiosyncrasies, for without that, how can one be tolerant of the other’s? How can one feel safe enough to be oneself?
The iloveindia.com web site expresses this so well, too, in saying, “Friendship is a feeling of comfort and emotional safety with a person. It is when you do not have to weigh your thoughts and measure words, before keeping it forth before your friend. It is when someone knows you better than yourself and assures to be your side in every emotional crisis. It is when you can sleep fighting and get another morning with a better understanding. Friendship is much beyond roaming together and sharing good moments, it is when someone comes to rescue you from the worst phase of life. Friendship is eternal.”
That is precisely how I feel about my friendship with Viola. We will not be separated – not by time, or geography, or disagreement, or anything else. I only hope and pray I have been as good a friend to her as she has been to me.
Viola, my friend – thank you, thank you, thank you. Happy birthday – and many, many more.
What is a friend? A single soul, dwelling in two bodies. - Aristotle
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