“But if the while I think on thee, dear friend, All losses are restored and sorrows end.” ~William Shakespeare

In a life of some 39 years I have encountered a great many people. No matter how rich, poor, tall, short, wise, foolish, serious, playful, famous, unknown, old, young, and so on they may be or have been, they all are offered equal opportunity to be counted as friends and fellows in the search of truth and generative living.

What is it that makes a friend a friend? William Penn described it beautifully when he wrote: “A true friend unbosoms freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably.” Of course to have friends you must be a friend, and I think that most would agree that being a friend is as – if not more – fulfilling than having a friend. It is definitely a two-way street.

Among my many blessings, I count my friendships as being one of the most precious. I’ve noticed that the longest-standing friendships are often the easiest to maintain, the hardest to shake and the most likely to grow separately, without growing apart, while the newer friendships are typically the most fragile. That said, I have met people who were for whatever reason “fast-tracked” into deep and meaningful friendship.

How would you describe your friends? I imagine they exist along a spectrum ranging from distant acquaintance to “BFF” and I’ll bet, too, that your various friends complement or perhaps magnify certain facets of your personality. Friends add color to life! No true friend should be “bad for you” and if there are some of those types of “friends” on your list, it is time to review who your friends really are!

I’ve heard tell that credit card companies and banks are using data mined from various online sources to determine your credit-worthiness and desirability as a client by virtue of the calibre, spending habits and personal interests of your network of friends. This is perhaps a scary thought, but by all measures social networking is quite a clever and efficient repository for enthusiastic, consensual information donors.

Take care with your friendships and guard them jealously, not with jealous emotional strategies but with uncompromising integrity in your dealings with them. That which is precious can be easily lost or corrupted, so take care.

True friends are a precious and valuable component of a rich and fulfilling life.