Being a Friend

What does being friendly or a friend to someone mean? There are ideas of what friendship are from many different people;

“True friendship multiplies the good in life and divides its evils. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a desert island..to find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing.” - Baltasar Gracian

“A friend is someone who lets you have total freedom to be yourself.” - Jim Morrison

“A true friend is someone who is there for you, when he'd rather be anywhere else.” - Len Wein

“The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it's the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him with his friend.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

There are also clinical definitions of friendship;

"Friendship is a term used to denote co-operative and supportive behaviour between two or more humans." - Wikipedia

"Friendship, the state of being friends (or friendly)." - Wordnet

It is a simple word, it is derived from Old English and is related to the word free. Other forms of the word are; freond, "to love, to favor" and frijojanan "to love".

From the Encyclopedia of Psychology, "research has shown that people who have friends tend to have better physical health and report a better sense of psychological well-being than those with weak or no network of friends. Friends provide support in three main ways: emotional, cognitive guidance, and tangible help."

I define friendship as having an open ear to someone that wishes to tell you their story.

It is small acts of kindness such as an open ear or an encouraging heart. Friendship can be a short exchange between yourself and cashier at the grocery market. It can be a co-worker, your wife or one of those long standing people you have known for years.

Friendship is a way of life that you project to others.

Be a friend, let it be a part of your life. And stay inspired my friends.

Climbing Each Day

"I have learned that everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it." - Unknown

Everyday can seem like we are climbing a rock face. Pushing ourselves to get to the next rock ledge only to find another shear wall to climb again. We struggle and sometimes catch ourselves wondering if it is worth all of the effort.

Many will discontinue the climb.

These are the people who set up permanent residence on rock ledge, limiting the movement they can make in any direction. The rock ledge is small and doesn't provide much space to grow.

Many will climb back down.

They resign themselves to never see the amazing view of their dreams. The bottom seems safe and secure, but very little light reaches those areas. Your vision is confined to short distances, never to see the horizon.

But there are those who continue the climb.

Facing the daily grind and change in direction of the climb, difficulty is expected but also part of the adventure. These people know what awaits them. In fact the higher you get, you get greater glimpses of it. When we reach the top, we are rewarded with a view so wonderful and great.

The view lets you see other mountains to conquer, new dreams, new goals.

Continue each day to push onward and upward. There will be setbacks along the way, but the outcome will be fantastic. You have the abiity inside to complete the climb. Once you arrive at your dream, you will wonder why you ever doubted yourself.

Stay inspired my friends.

Hello and Goodbye

“Every goodbye makes the next hello closer.” - Unknown

Greetings between people are the greatest way to establish connection. Whether it be hello or goodbye, it acknowledges the other person will be or was a part of a personal connection. It is two or more people establishing a bond at some level.

Hello says you are ready to connect and will provide your undivided attention to the other person. This connection then occurs with both our eyes and verbally an exchange begins.

The hello in our connection can uplift another person beyond what you might expect. As humans, we all have a need to be acknowledged. It provides us with belief of our existence and that we matter. Even when you connect for the four-hundredth time, it is like saying hello for this first time all over again.

A rush of remembrance comes flooding in and the connection is reborn.

And when you complete the conversation, a goodbye signals an end to this connection but another will take place again. It creates an anticipation with each other. I have a friend whose father never said goodbye on phone. When he finished what he had to say, he simply hung up. This left the other person hanging there wondering, "was it something I said?"

When my friends father passed away, so many chances to say goodbye were lost. It leaves us without completion. This is why goodbye becomes so important to be said. The chance to say hello again may never come.

So say hello, say goodbye and let people know you will connect again and again. Never let the moment pass.

Stay inspired my friends!

Life Written in Ink

"You have to forgive yourself for everything you do in your life because you made that decision based on what was happening at that instant." - William Shatner

The definition of regret varies slightly from one place to the next. Most commonly it is to experience regret on account of; to lose or miss with a sense of regret; to feel sorrow or dissatisfaction on account of (the happening or the loss of something); as, to regret an error; to regret lost opportunities or friends.

Regret is your conscience speaking to you. Going over what you have or have not done relative to some incident or event. The regret part comes along when you decide internally that you should have done things differently. Life is like writing with an ink pen. You can not erase the ink, but you can learn from it.

What we must also understand is that most times our regret happens in the fresh light of new information. We have at that point benefit of having seen the results or outcome. You could call this having twenty-twenty hindsight. We than beat ourselves up with regret and do not allow ourselves to get past it. Do not misunderstand, regret serves a purpose in evaluating what we have or have not done in life.

We can not allow regret to chain us down from ever moving forward.

In addition to the above quote, William Shatner tells the following story as an example. "I lived close enough to where Marlon Brando lived that I could have walked to his house. I always wanted to talk to him. Never did. I knew a lot of people in common with Laurence Olivier. I could have talked to him. Never did. I know they would have taken my call. I could have taken them to lunch. But because I thought they might not, I didn't do it. I wish I had."

This story gives us insight to a couple of things; one is that regret serves a purpose of learning and the second is to move on with this new learned experience. You learn from examining (in one way) your regret and how things happened. Regret is not something you can linger on. You made your decisions based upon what you knew or thought you knew at the time.

Learn, move on.

You now have more understanding from having learned, you do not let the regret hold you back. The new found revelation or knowledge allows your life to grow; you make that phone call, send that letter or change your behavior.

Break the chain of regret that holds you back in life. It is a heavy stone that would make a perfect stone for your path in life. Lay it down, empty your wagon of those regrets and move on to greater things.

Stay inspired my friends.