Happy Tuesday! Today feels like a good day for some content from another voice.
I have recently been reading a little more work of the poet, David Whyte. I purchased his book, Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment, and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words, which contains numerous sections that explore the deep meaning in words like "Silence," "Beginning," and "Ground."
Recently his section on "Friendship" has been hitting me hard. In numerous ways Whyte explains how forgiveness is essential to true friendship—that "a close friendship will always reveal the shadow in the other as much as ourselves, to remain friends we must know the other and their difficulties, and even their sins and encourage he best in them, not through critique but through addressing the better part of them, the leading creative edge of their incarnation, thus subtly discouraging what makes them smaller, less generous, less of themselves."
This is such a gorgeous description of what it means to walk with a close friend through all their beauty and darkness. When our friends find themselves in periods of darkness, we have the important obligation to draw their attention to the indistinguishable light we always see them carrying within themselves.
Whyte close his section on friendship by saying, "...the ultimate touchstone of friendship is not improvement, neither of the other nor of the self, the ultimate touchstone is witness, the privilege of being granted the sight of the essence of another, to have walked with them and to have believed in them, and sometimes just to have accompanied them for however brief a span, on a journey impossible to accomplish alone."
"...the ultimate touchstone [of friendship] is witness, the privilege of being granted the sight of the essence of another, to have walked with them and to have believed in them..."
Friends, thank you for seeing me, walking with me, and believing in me. Keep peace and keep creating,
Parker <3
