A New Friend

When you get to be my age, what a revelation it is to make new friends.

I once, in an interview, asked a very prominent elderly couple what was the hardest thing about getting old. They said in unison, “loosing your friends,” and added, “make friends with all ages so you always have them.”

I understand that “friend” has a different meaning to everyone. To me, to be a friend obviously takes time, trust, and shared experience.

But when the experience of a new friendship starts is when it the most exciting. You learn the passions, commitments, and dedications of the other, and most of all you experience appreciation of the other’s being and observations of life.

I knew my new friend a little from a professional relationship and from viewing his passion as expressed in photographic art. But it was not until we had the opportunity to share the extended conversational process of personal passions as well as life’s experiences did the germination of friendship begin in earnest.

A friend is one you knew before

Before each life began.

You both have come from spirit’s core

To seek a new life span.

And if by chance each happens by

To find their friend again.

We than can let the spirit sigh

And ask how have you been?