Friendship

Thought for the week

Friendship is one of the ways love comes into our lives. It is like a bright star which lights up everything around it.  Some friendships develop slowly. We notice someone or we are introduced to them. As we get to know them we discover some traits we like or find attractive. We then establish a relationship with them and so our friendship begins.

Love at first sight
Sometimes a friendship can begin immediately from a first meeting where we feel at home with a person. It seems like we know each other for ages, yet we have just met. This type of friendship, when it happens with couples is often referred to as 'love at first sight'. A friendship where we feel we already know the person is probably an old friend from another lifetime. We are just reconnecting again because of the bond of love between us. We know and love each other. If we have an understanding of past lives and the fact that we continue to develop as we go from one life to another, we can then see that these friends who we seem to know well, are indeed friends from previous lives. If we loved a person in a previous life, we will love them again in this life. This is a simple explanation the “love at first sight” phenomenon.

Accept their wisdom
Friends are often the people we learn easiest from. We like them and we respect them. They may occasionally challenge us but because we like them we accept their wisdom easily. Some friends are good because they can tell us some uncomfortable truths which we may not be aware of or wish not to hear. On reflection we often see that they were right. It's at this point we discover the the quality of their friendship. Their strength of character and understanding of us allowed them see what was best for us.

Inner friends
Some of us have inner friends who we turn to when we have nobody else. Some have a family member who has moved on to the inner worlds. Others have saints or a holy person who offer guidance. For some this inner friend is the Life-force or Holy Spirit offering guidance in many aspect of their lives. Often this guidance comes as intuition or a knowing or a feeling of something which is right. It just feels right and therefore is the only right thing to do.

Be friends with ourselves
One of the most valuable and positive friendships we can develop is with ourselves. If we can be friends with ourselves, love ourselves and be aware of the goodness within us we will be a more balanced and positive individual. While there may be some aspects of our personality we don't like, deep down we are a perfect person. We have our individual traits so that we can learn from them and also so that others can learn from us.

We are here on a temporary basis, our personal traits whether they are skills or disabilities, good or bad personalities, nice features g or ugly, sociable or a reclusive, these are all temporary. When we move on from this life we move closer to our more perfect self, Soul. As Soul we are perfect but we are still learning to appreciate and become aware of this. If we can begin to see this perfection within ourselves we will begin be more accepting of ourselves and develop an inner friendship with ourselves. This inner friendship will help us be better friends with everyone we know.

Soul to Soul
When we see the love in our friends, we are catching a glimpse of Soul. When we show love to each other we are working as Soul to Soul. This accounts for the wonderful feeling we feel when we are “in love”. It is a flow of love from them and to us. We are getting closer to each other as Soul. This is one of the blessings of friendship. We receive love and we have the opportunity to give love. As we give and receive love we are touching the life-force, which maintains our worlds. Friendship is a source of love, a way of touching the Holy Spirit.

Wishing you love and friendship in your life.

*Ed Parkinson

For more insights into love and friendship, visit the Spiritual Writings page by clicking here.