This last week was emotionally difficult. I had a tea with an old friend who I'm not comfortable being open with, a funeral for a beloved friend I will miss terribly, Mother's day (good because I love my Mom, and am blessed by lots of wonderful friends who are moms, hard because I've been unable to have children of my own, and a very dear friend of mine has had the most difficult miscarriage), and my birthday. (I struggle with chronically wanting to both be seen and not seen, so birthdays are both fun and stressful.)
As I've struggled through this week I've talked to several dear friends, letting them carry little parts of my sorrow, fears, and burdens.
I have to say, I'm blessed with a whole slew of wonderful friends and each and everyone of them went out of their way to help me through this week, in a slew of different ways, so I'm feeling very blessed. (That includes some of you on here, even unawares, you helped me.)
Watching through Stargate Atlantis has made me hyper-aware of the importance of friendship, has made me more vigilant about my friends, both caring for them and letting them care for me.
Reading a chapter in Return of the King, I was struck by the constant contrast of despair brought by the Nazgul and the 'foolishness' of hope brought by Gandalf.
Both of these stories showcase great warriors who defend their people at all cost, the ultimate acts of love and friendship
So, with a thousand pistons firing, I connected all these lines from songs and such together this morning trying to express my feelings of simply having wonderful friends, of the importance of hope, and my love of warriors who get us all home.
•••
Weep not for roads untraveled
Weep not for sights unseen
May your love never end, and if you need a friend
There's a seat here alongside me
So give me hope in the darkness that I will see the light
But if your strife strikes at your sleep
Remember spring swaps snow for leaves
You'll be happy and wholesome again
“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself (for God did not need to create). It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival. “ - CS Lewis
A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.
“Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn’t even be there, eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back.”
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
A true warrior's gentleness towards his people is matched by his ferocity towards his enemies.
