Meditations: Friendship

artwork by James R. Eads

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“Let us be grateful 

to the people who make us happy; 

they are the charming gardeners 

who make our souls blossom.” 

~Marcel Proust

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“Friendship is unnecessary, 

like philosophy, like art.... 

It has no survival value; 

rather it is one of those things 

which give value to survival.” 

~C.S. Lewis

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“The glory of friendship 

is not the outstretched hand, 

not the kindly smile, 

nor the joy of companionship; 

it is the spiritual inspiration 

that comes to one when you discover 

that someone else believes in you 

and is willing to trust you with a friendship.” 

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

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“When I say it's you I like, I'm talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can ever see or hear or touch. That deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without which humankind cannot survive. Love that conquers hate, peace that rises triumphant over war, and justice that proves more powerful than greed.” 

~Fred Rogers

POETRY: Emerson's "The Rhodora"

 Rhododendron canadense, the rhodora, 

is a deciduous flowering shrub that is native to northeastern North America.

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The Rhodora: 

On being asked, whence is the flower

by Ralph Waldo Emerson

"In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes,

I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods, 

Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook,

To please the desert and the sluggish brook. 

The purple petals fallen in the pool

Made the black water with their beauty gay; 

Here might the red-bird come his plumes to cool,

And court the flower that cheapens his array.

Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why

This charm is wasted on the earth and sky,

Tell them, dear, that, if eyes were made for seeing,

Then beauty is its own excuse for Being;

Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose! 

I never thought to ask; I never knew;

But in my simple ignorance suppose

The self-same power that brought me there, brought you."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson