Everyone is your friend until proven otherwise.
The proof is through what they do and what they don’t do.
Who is not my friend?
The person who doesn’t want justice for me.
The person who can’t hear me when I cry.
The person who doesn’t understand peace.
The person who is entitled.
The person who lets me starve.
The person who is okay if I live in fear.
The person who hits me.
The person who doesn’t care if I live.
The person who doesn’t see me because of my color, my gender, my ethnicity, my race, or my personal belief.
Who is my friend?
The person who speaks up against injustice.
The person who comforts me in my despair.
The person who doesn’t make Drama in my life.
The person who lets me go through a door first.
The person who shares their lunch with me.
The person who checks in with me to see if I’m okay.
The person who hugs me without asking.
The person whose life would be dimmer without me.
The person who celebrates my life, who I am, who doesn’t need to change me.
To be a friend is both the most tremendous responsibility as well as the simplest.
True friends may not see each other for decades, but when they come together, its as if no time has passed.
This bond, this relationship, is the outward manifestation of an inward purpose.
That purpose is made real through our actions and inactions with each other.
That purpose is the true meaning of love.
True love and true friendship don’t mean no boundaries.
True love and true friendship mean we consider each life, each person an individual worthy of respect, of consideration, of life, of love.
Friendship ends when respect for boundaries is crossed.
Yet friendship is ever-growing and will continually change.
Friendship leaves open the door for redemption even up to the last second of life.
Friendship is symbolized by the open hand.
Is your hand open?
Open to those around you?
To the stranger?
To yourself?
Who are your friends?
Peace
Toby aka Daniel J. Frey
