Friend

 

I just went back and read the second half of my last entry. I couldn't remember what I wrote. I think I'll just leave it as is as a tribute to the attention-demanding power of these thunderstorms we've been having.
I am struck by the fact that O'Donohue names his first chapter "The Mystery of Friendship." Mystery! There is something about my friendships that is beyond logical analysis. When two persons are very much alike, why am I friends with one and not the other? That extra something escapes me.
I don't even remember how or when I first met some of my friends. But there are some first meetings that I remember vividly. There was a bond so immediate that it seemed we had known each other a long time. The interesting way that O'Donohue puts it is "Friendship is always an act of recognition....suddenly there is the flash of recognition and the embers of kinship glow. There is an awakening between you, a sense of ancient knowing....Each recognized the other as the one in whom their heart could be at home."
I feel safe enough to let the other get to know things about me that I am reluctant to risk with everybody. The author calls this intimacy "sacred." God is at the heart of it. "For love alone can awaken what is divine within you....When you learn to love and to let your self be loved, you come home to the hearth of your own spirit."
For me it is harder to let myself be loved than it is to love. It was life-altering for me when I discovered God's unearned love. Just to let God love me is an on-going project. Then my love for God and for a friend is more authentic.