“Always be mindful of the kindness and not the faults of others.” ~Buddha
Would you like to have more friends? I mean true friends—people who laugh and cry with you.
My close friends mean the world to me. They are there for me when I need them. When they’re on a high, I celebrate with them; when they fall, I help them up again. My life is so much richer because of my friends.
But it hasn’t all been an easy ride. For example, one of my best friends is my ex-husband. It took years of work to move through heart-ache, anger, grief, and resentment in order to find the strong friendship we have now. To create a true friendship takes a lot of effort and dedication.
A friend is one to whom one may pour out all the contents of one’s heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away. ~Arabian Proverb
How I Lost a Heap of Fake Friends (and Gained a Few True Ones)
In the past, I learned a hard lesson about friends. I was a professional musician at the time and Director of one of the oldest and most renowned music schools in Australasia. My life seemed to be going fine: I was in a good marriage, had great job with a high public profile, and was a popular friend of many.
Or so I thought. Then things disintegrated: I lost my job, and my husband and I separated. (more…)