Your friend is your needs answered.
He is your field which you sow with love and reap with
thanksgiving.
And he is your board and your fireside.
For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him
for peace.
your own mind, nor do you withhold the "ay."
And when he is silent, your heart ceases not to listen
to his 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 him may be clearer
in his 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 he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its
flood also.
For what is your friend that you should seek him with
hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.
For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.
And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter,
and the sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning>
and is refreshed.
