This Week's Gift

I know this sounds really pretentious to say, but I feel like I have one of the most unusual, holistic, rewarding, and caring friendships in the whole wide world. And I had the privilege of getting to spend an entire week with that friend. I am so utterly thankful for her. I can't even begin to express how much life her life brings to mine. We read Kahlil Gibran's piece on friendship tonight before she left. Since I can't express what her friendship means to me very easily, I'll share Kahlil's words instead because they are so full of truth:

Your friend is your needs answered.
She is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.
And she is your board and your fireside.
For you come to her with your hunger, and you seek her for peace.

When your friend speaks her mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "ay."
And when she is silent your heart ceases not to listen to her heart;
For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.
When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
For that which you love most in her may be clearer in her absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.
And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.
For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.

And let your best be for your friend.
If she must know the ebb of your tide, let her know its flood also.
For what is your friend that you should seek her with hours to kill?
Seek her always with hours to live.
For it is hers to fill your need, but not your emptiness.
And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.