visit to a friends place

This write up is thanks to the visit that I had to my friend's place last evening after a long time. The family is so close knit happy go lucky and the moment I rang the bell my friend welcomed me with a smile and a hug and slowly all the members of the family woke up and aunty woke up calling my name and greeting me. Then all of us sat together having conversation and laughing and teasing each other. There was so much of warmth, genuiness such a comforting feeling. It felt so much at home. Never a dull moment at all. It felt defintely there is some bonding and I felt I was a part of their family.

Uncle was at his best with his witty and terrific sense of humor and aunty always smiling and at her best to make me feel special showering with loads of love, wishes and gave me hot steaming pulav, tutty fruity cake and my special chai.. the other member of the house ,friend's sibling was doing his best to prove himself flexible, and macho .. friend of mine silent spectator was enjoying every moment with a smile just not with the lips but also smiling with eyes.They say smile of the eyes is more captivating than the smile of the lips and that was so true. It took a lot of effort on my part to wear my shoes and get away from there and head towards home sweet home.

As I was driving back home, a sense of contentment, calmness engulfed me and tears of joy rolled down my cheeks and I realised sometimes simple pleasures of joy gives you immense satisfaction and happiness that money cant bring and yet most of the time we look for complex things to give us that happiness.

I dedicate this article to that friend of mine and all my other friends who make my life meaningful, fuller and so enriching.. Here it goes...

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."

Life is wonderful. We are overcome by feelings of gratitude for the glimpses we occasionally have of its majesty and mystery. And we revel in the opportunity to connect with each other and those of many other walks of life in ways more satisfying than anything we had previously experienced.

I do not know if I will ever have that great relationship with a man. But I'm learning that all relationships are worth working on if they are worth having. I am blessed to have some wonderful friends who have helped me through some pretty rough times.

I am on the road back to me. And I am not afraid.

When we go walking, we do not walk briskly and get exercise. We walk slowly and stop to admire a spider web or a squirrel. Yes, my children slow me down. They make me pay attention, and remind me it is the pauses between the busy notes of life that make the music so beautiful.

There is something about my friends that automatically brings out the silliness in me. It's almost like being reunited with myself, because no thoughts expressed between us are incomprehensible, no jokes ever hang in the air like an albatross. For once, I never have to worry about feeling stupid for making some arbitrary comment. It is the equivalent of pure, creative freedom.

“Words cannot express such joys as a friend imparts.”

Imagine, if you can, a moment in time when you were sitting on a porch swing or a roof top, or beneath the branches of a shady tree. Maybe autumn had laid a crackling carpet of leaves beneath your feet. Or maybe it was a blazing summer day and you were parched for a swig of anything to quench your thirst. Winter may have deposited its first blanket of dew on the ground and you were hunkered down inside your fort, battle-weary and droopy-eyed . Spring may have beckoned you to the garden, and you were down on your knees, toiling in the hot sun, planting seeds to ensure the harvest. Wherever you were, whatever the time of year, nothing else in the world seemed to matter because you were not alone. A friend was at your side. And the moment was perfect.

A friend is a gift. Whether those words have ever rolled off your tongue or drifted through your head in a quiet moment of deep reflection, the truth is undeniable. Friendship is a gift of enormous value. Providing intimacy, rapport, trust, and affection, friendship is the common ground where kindred spirits find communion.

“Words cannot express such joy as a friend imparts,”. “For it would be better for us that the sun were extinguished than we should be without our friends.”

The sunlight of friendship is cast by design. After all, friends don't come included in the “package deal” of our birth or bloodlines. Unlike the families into which we are born, friendships are decided. “Our relatives are ours by chance,” wrote the French poet Jacques Delille, “but we choose our friends.”

The rewards of choosing well can be tremendous. As anyone who has ever had a close friend knows, friends lessen our sorrows and broaden our smiles, allowing us to feel accepted and understood when the world turns its back on us. Like the proverbial “bridge” that spans “troubled waters,” friends lay themselves down and also carry us through the dark nights of the soul. They do this, in the words of William Penn, by “unbosoming freely, advising justly, assisting readily, adventuring boldly, taking all patiently, defending courageously-and continuing a friend unchanged.”

True friends are also the cheerleaders who can provide the wind pushing up beneath our wings, that can lift us out of our doldrums and up to higher ground. When adversaries conspire against us, our friends can be counted on to mount a ready defense. To friends we can entrust our innermost selves, knowing they will safeguard our secrets and advise with gentle candor. Listening to our tribulations, they understand even what we do not say. Loyal, dependable, and kind, friends go out on a limb where the sweetest delights are found.