Bird Droppings April 13, 2012

A seemingly simple concept is friendship

 

Recently the mother of a former student told me how much her son thought of me. I wish it were not so but we all need ego stroking at one time or another. But so often when we pay attention to a student or too a friend we do not realize how much we are truly affecting that person. It is in these simple moments of just being a friend that so much is accomplished. It may not be a planned word or thought but a heartfelt thank you or just being there.

 

“I reach down and touch the delicate leaf of a plant. My friend’s words rise up in my heart. ‘Everything lives, everything dies, and everything leans to the light.’ If I only knew this it would be enough.” Kent Nerburn, Small Graces

 

When we show a bit of light to an individual they turn just as the plant will slowly turn to face the light. One of my students had requested to be in my class all day, I really do not want that student all day, but he responds in how I do things. Friendship so often is like sunlight.

 

“Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious.” St. Thomas Aquinas

 

How do we support friends and throw sunlight their way, maybe simple things, quiet things, a touch, a smile, an email.

 

“Friendship is one of the most tangible things in a world which offers fewer and fewer supports.” Kenneth Branagh

 

“I value the friend who for me finds time on his calendar, but I cherish the friend who for me does not consult his calendar.” Robert Brault

 

It has been a few years since I printed out several pictures of which two were of owls that had been made on a potter’s wheel. They were made of clay and in effect originally were to be jugs but a slip along the way and became owls. The potter had such success with the owls she continued making them instead of jugs. They were made by a folk potter from north Georgia, Grace Nell Hewell. I dropped them off in my friend’s room, no reason other than just being a friend.  She teaches art and talks about potters in her sculpture class; sometimes it is in simple things.

 

“Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend — or a meaningful day.” Dalai Lama

 

“I do then with my friends as I do with my books. I would have them where I can find them, but I seldom use them.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

When I am speaking of friends often I will say I really do not have that many friends one or two and usually a name or two will roll through my head. Yet when I am walking about in life there are few who I do not truly consider friends. I sit back in the in my chair at school typing away at my computer a row of books put together recently when a friend of my son took interest in an area of thought I have been following for several years. Behind me shelves of books, theology, education, psychology, literature and poetry surround the walls and directly in front of me a quote.

 

“A very powerful axe in a master’s hand accomplishes much, that same in the hands of a child nothing.” Edited by A.J. Russell, from Gods Calling

 

Emerson my hero always seems to have something to say and I quote “friends are like books” you have them there on a shelf sort of waiting for the need or specific instance that you will have. I ran into a friend from school as I went shopping at the grocery store, she said she hates to go grocery shopping and will try and go once a month. I go daily, to see my friends I never know who I might meet, coincidences. Yesterday I went for a few items and a student who was absent was there riding his skate board we talked, another inside,  a friend whom I have known for years was also shopping. So often my wife warns me as I walk out don’t stop and talk to all of your friends.

 

“Give me work to do, Give me health, Give me joy in simple things, Give me an eye for beauty, A tongue for truth, A heart that loves, A mind that reasons, A sympathy that understands. Give me neither malice nor envy, But a true kindness and a noble common sense. At the close of each day give me a book and a friend with whom I can be silent.” S. M. Frazier

 

How do we as friends support each other midst the turmoil of life and tribulations of simply walking the face of the earth, how do we support each other as we struggle to cross the stream rocks slippery and wet.

 

 “Friendship needs no words…” Dag Hammarskjold

 

“But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life; and thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine.” Thomas Jefferson

 

A seldom heard phrase, a seldom whispered thought, and a seldom thought idea is only seldom responded too, so then do it, as NIKE says and or be a friend.

 

“The real test of friendship is: Can you literally do nothing with the other person? Can you enjoy together those moments of life that are utterly simple? They are the moment’s people look back on at the end of life and number as their most sacred experiences.” Eugene Kennedy

 

As I finish up this morning and in the course of the last hour thoughts of friends not just one or two that I would attest too but ever so many that I see and talk too every day each moment and email. Some are in college and I will see once a year or two maybe some I have not seen in several years and simple correspond daily in email. Still others share my home and some I see each day as I walk the halls at school or sit in the hall way observing and listening as folks go by. Friendship is a cement to build a life on as we travel from here to there, friends are everywhere. Sitting back that sort of sounds like Dr. Seuss, so today justice to all and keep all in harm’s way on your mind and in your hearts and always give thanks.

namaste

bird