#Friendship
TO HAVE A FRIEND
If you are having difficulty dealing with something by yourself
a what, where, when or who
may you be blessed to have a friend…
who will sit next to you.
Who will be there when your life
is troubled, sad…or blurred…
who will put their arm around you
without saying a word
And if someone you know is having difficulty
dealing with a what, where, when or who
may they be blessed to find that friend
who’s sitting next to them
is you…
A New Friend
Reaching out
Enduring pain
Needing friends
Expecting
Entrusting
Missing social connection
Yet still hopeful
Finally a voice
Rather words in text
Indicating someone cared
Eagerly responding
New friend discovered
Dare to hope again.
FRIENDSHIPS CHANGE THE WORLD
May we all be blessed with a multitude of diverse friends…
for once a new fireship is unfurled
That person adds their own unique approach
and beauty to our world.
And once we’ve welcomed in a new friend…
It matter not where or when…
Remarkably…
the world we knew before we met them
will never be the same again.
A LESSON REMEMBERED
It’s a lesson I learned in grade school that still echoes in my mind…
A lesson on the sadness and cruelty of prejudice…
and the joys of being compassionate and kind…
A large new student entered our close-knit world
and as was our cruel and childish rule of thumb…
immediately we had a name for him…we called him Big and Dumb.
I imagine we were a little intimidated and afraid of this big new kid in school…
Why is it fear of someone different sometimes causes us to be cruel?
But once I got to know him…once I took the time to see
except for his enormous size…he was a lot like me!
Just like me he had his fears…his anxieties…his insecurities…
and just like me he liked his burgers with lots of ketchup and Swiss cheese.
He was smart and funny…we could always make each other laugh…
I helped him with English and he helped me with Math.
I was hesitant at first to to approach someone so different and unplanned…
but found acceptance and friendship easy once I took the time to understand.
It’s a lesson, if we’re lucky, we learn as children:
How our world is such a beautiful place to be…
and how what makes it beautiful…is it’s diversity.
If we’re blessed we learn from our childhood mistakes
and leave behind us once and for all…
those times we acted out of fear and ignorance…
back when our minds were much to small.
For it is these lessons learned in childhood
that contribute to the adults we will become…
helping us grow up big and smart…
instead of big and dumb.
It was a lesson I’m glad I learned early…much earlier than expected…
and I’ll always be grateful for the time when our two lives intersected.
8 MINUTES
8 minutes!
Doesn’t seem like much time does it.
It’s .8% of the time each day we are awake.
But 8 minutes in some cases…could be all the time it takes.
I heard a man tell a story about a dear friend of his
who told him about a time she felt lost and all alone
and how difficult it was for her to suffer through this time on her own.
The man said to his friend, “I’m sorry you went through such misery…
but I would have been there if you called….why didn’t you contact me?
She said, “I did contact you…check your phone…
It was last Tuesday…around noon.”
When he checked his phone…there was her message:
‘We should get together soon.’
He said, “This is the message you send me all the time.
How could I have guessed…
this message, the same as all the others…was different from the rest?”
Then he told her about an article he’d read a while back…
about how, when a person is struggling
8 minutes of support is all they need to get themselves back on track.
So then and there they decided…if either sees this message
‘Do you have 8 minutes?’
on their phones or computer screens…
there will be no confusion…they’ll know exactly what it means.
I love this idea…
So from now on if I get a message from you that reads
‘Do you have 8 minutes?’
I’ll call you right back…they’ll be no reason to explain…
And if you get a message from me that reads
‘Do you have 8 minutes?’
I hope you’ll do the same.