Have you been the kind of friend you want as a friend?
The Friend Ship
When I was in my twenties, I had the great fortune of working at a sports camp in the summers, coaching basketball and baseball. The camp was called Camp Caribou and it was owned by a great person, named Bill Lerman. Now Bill taught me many things about life that he didn’t realize he was teaching me, like how if you avoid your boss you will always be happier, and if you want other people to do something, set a vigorous example and they will follow it without question. But more valuable than that, Bill always asked the campers, “What is the biggest ship in the world?” After guesses like aircraft carriers, ocean liners, etc., he would spring the answer, “Friendship.” At first I thought he was full of it, but you know as life has gone on, I believe him more and more every day.
When it comes to answering the question above, the initial reaction is to think that I am definitely the kind of friend I would want as a friend, but as I look honestly at the friendships of the past, I would have to say that I have fallen short. I think as people get older, I think you value your friendships more and make more time for them. The best part of a friendship is that a real friend will accept you as you are and not judge you or expect you to be any more than you are.
—-”The better part of one’s life consists of his friendships.” - Abraham Lincoln
Friendships Make Life Great
Friendship Lasts
Friendship is a relationship that makes your life more enjoyable and productive. I look at life as a great experience and any great experience is better if you share it. And when I look back, all of the memorable moments in my life can be shared with at least one friend, and that friendship made those experiences special.
“A true friend freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably.”
William Penn
Time really seems to have no effect on a friendship, if you are friends you understand the person and accept them with all of their quirks and eccentricities, because as human beings we all have them, everyone. Being able to not only overlook or deal with a person’s unique behaviors, friendship is an acceptance of these things. There are events in everyone’s life that test these ideas to the core. You will find out who your friends really are if you ever face a difficulty that will cause any kind of uncomfortable feeling. Anyone who is just hanging around because they think you are a funny, entertaining person will be long gone. These friendships are like leaky lifeboats, they prove totally useless when you really need them. The true friend is there today, tomorrow and in five years if you need them.
Every Stranger is A Friend You haven’t Met Yet!
The development of new friends and friendships is important to your development as a person. Much like a combination of different spices all meld together to make a tasty meal to eat, new people with different life experiences can add a unique view of you, your beliefs and your actions. Just like a new spice can make an old favorite meal taste like new, this new perspective can allow you to savor and appreciate parts of yourself that you have enjoyed but have come to take for granted.
I truly value all of the people who at one point or another in my life I could count as a friend. Whether we shared a laugh, an experience or a tragedy, I value each and every one of you and have carried that piece of our friendship with me. If time has moved between us, I am sorry. If you believe I have not valued our friendship, think again. If it has been too long since we shared a story or a laugh, get in touch. Thank you to all my friends.
Bill Lerman was right, friendship is the biggest ship in the world and you should treat everyone you meet like they are a potential passenger!
Quotes about Friendship
—-”We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.”- Robert Louis Stevenson
—-”I have learned that a good friend is the purest of all God’s gifts, for it is a love that has no exchange or payment. “- Frances Farme
—-”True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it be lost.”
- Charles Caleb Colton
—-”For whoever knows how to return a kindness he has received must e a friend above price.” – Sophocles
—-”A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.” - Walter Winchell
“Hello Friend!”
—-I want someone to laugh with me, someone to be grave with me, someone to please me and help my discrimination with his or her remark, and at times, no doubt, to admire my acuteness and penetration. – Robert Burns
—-”A friend is one who believes in you when you have ceased to believe in yourself.”
- Sent by Lysha
—-One’s friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human. -George Santayana
—-”My friends are my estate.”
- Emily Dickinson
—-Friendship consists in forgetting what one gives, and remembering what one receives. – Alexander Dumas
—-”A friend is someone who is there for you when he’d rather be anywhere else.”
- Len Wein – Sent by Paulo Louro
—-”Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead.
Walk beside me and be my friend.”
- Albert Camus
—-”It takes a long time to grow an old friend.” - by John Leonard
—–Under the magnetism of friendship the modest man becomes bold; the shy, confident; the lazy, active; or the impetuous, prudent and peaceful. – William Makepeace Thackeray
—-”A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart, and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.”
- Sent by Donna Roberts
—-If a man does not make new acquaintance as he advances through life, he will soon find himself alone. A man, sir, should keep his friendship in constant repair. - Dr. Samuel Johnson
—-Each new friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born. – Anais Nin
—–We take care of our health, we lay up money, we make our room tight, and our clothing sufficient; but who provides wisely that he shall not be wanting in the best property of all—-friends? -Ralph Waldo Emerson
—-”Your friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you.” - Elbert Hubard
—-And in the sweetness of friendship let ther be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed. - Kahlil Gibram
—-Friendship improves happiness and abates misery by doubling our joy and dividing our grief. -Joseph Addison
—-”A friend is a gift you give yourself.” - Robert Louis Stevenson
—-”The friendship that can cease has never been real.” - Saint Jerome
—-”My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me.” - Henry Ford
—-”There is magic in the memory of schoolboy friendships; it softens the heart, and even affects the nervous system of those who have no heart.” - Bejamin Disraeli
—-”Life is partly what we make it, and partly what is made by the friends whom we choose.”
- Tehyi Hsieh
—-”The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend. I have no wealth to bestow on him. If he knows that I am happy in loving him, he will want no other reward. Is not friendship divine in this?” - Henry David Thoreau
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