Lists...of One Sort or Another
Sometime ago I said I was going to fill up my new `Listography` book that I received for my birthday and I did make a start but when I got to the List of My Closest Friends, I got stopped up. Friends are a valuable commodity, worth treasuring and hanging onto. But I have thought about this some and decided that:
1. I cannot list my friends for the world to see. . .what if I left someone out or wrote down a name that was not appreciated. . .hmmm. . .and
2. I fear that I have not always been a good friend to those I hold dear and I needed to pause a while and wonder what I could do about that.
So, I decided to make a list of those qualities that friends have and I should have to be a friend. I wondered what is it that constitutes a good friend, a friend that will be around for many years. And so I began my research and my list of qualities.
I decided that I truly want to grow my friends and grow my own soul so I would be considered a friend in the best possible light.
I would be friends with you and have your love.
Shakespeare
Now what values or qualities would I have to be considered a friend. . .
1. loyalty. . .
The greatest gift you can give another is the purity of your attention.
Richard Moss
2. honesty without judging. . .
My friends are not perfect - no more than I - and so we suit each other admirably. It is one of the charitable dispensations of Providence that perfection is not essential to friendship.
Alexander Smith
3. comfort to one another. . .
Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.
George Eliot
4. unconditional love or acceptance. . .
Anybody can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend's successes.
Oscar Wilde
5. let us look out for each other`s best interests. . .
I love you for putting your hand into my heaped-up heart, and passing over all the foolish and frivolous and weak things…and for drawing out into the light all the beautiful, radiant belongings that no one else has looked quite far enough to find.
6. something in common. . .not everything. . .but maybe some values. . .
I'd like to come and put my feet under your table.
Lawton Lowe
7. laugh and cry together. . .
Be more prompt to go to a friend in adversity than in prosperity.
Chilo
8. let me be a mirror to you as I would like you to be for me. . .
Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.
von Goethe
Tell me, what do you consider the best trait of your favourite friend and what do you value the most in that relationship. . .
If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend.
Abraham Lincoln
1. I cannot list my friends for the world to see. . .what if I left someone out or wrote down a name that was not appreciated. . .hmmm. . .and
2. I fear that I have not always been a good friend to those I hold dear and I needed to pause a while and wonder what I could do about that.
So, I decided to make a list of those qualities that friends have and I should have to be a friend. I wondered what is it that constitutes a good friend, a friend that will be around for many years. And so I began my research and my list of qualities.
I decided that I truly want to grow my friends and grow my own soul so I would be considered a friend in the best possible light.
I would be friends with you and have your love.
Shakespeare
Now what values or qualities would I have to be considered a friend. . .
1. loyalty. . .
The greatest gift you can give another is the purity of your attention.
Richard Moss
2. honesty without judging. . .
My friends are not perfect - no more than I - and so we suit each other admirably. It is one of the charitable dispensations of Providence that perfection is not essential to friendship.
Alexander Smith
3. comfort to one another. . .
Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.
George Eliot
4. unconditional love or acceptance. . .
Anybody can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend's successes.
Oscar Wilde
5. let us look out for each other`s best interests. . .
I love you for putting your hand into my heaped-up heart, and passing over all the foolish and frivolous and weak things…and for drawing out into the light all the beautiful, radiant belongings that no one else has looked quite far enough to find.
6. something in common. . .not everything. . .but maybe some values. . .
I'd like to come and put my feet under your table.
Lawton Lowe
7. laugh and cry together. . .
Be more prompt to go to a friend in adversity than in prosperity.
Chilo
8. let me be a mirror to you as I would like you to be for me. . .
Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.
von Goethe
Tell me, what do you consider the best trait of your favourite friend and what do you value the most in that relationship. . .
If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend.
Abraham Lincoln
I have more to say about this topic that is polite to put in comments, I fear... maybe I'll work up a "response" post and link over to you...? That might work... next week... when the fund-raiser is over...
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Ma. True friends are priceless; the un-true ones can go take a flying leap!