A good egg

Yesterday I took a little road trip to visit a dear friend. We've been friends since the mid 1980s, back when we both wore suits and were scrambling to climb that corporate ladder everyone told us we had to climb. We've both been through tremendous personal and professional changes since then, but we've remained close friends through all those changes. Even though we are alike in many way, we are different in even more. It keeps things interesting.

Like, for example, the egg in the picture above. It's one of a dozen eggs my friend gave me yesterday - fresh eggs that her own little hens laid. She decided a while back that she wanted to have her own chickens and her own eggs - so she just went ahead and did it. Me, on the other hand, I might think about it (briefly) and just keep buying them instead.

I've been noticing recently how some people, friends, former co-workers and in-laws, who have know me for decades, still often expect me to be exactly as I was decades ago. I've been thinking lately of how important all friends, old and new, are. And about how rare it is to find true friends who really accept you for who you are.

"A true friend

is someone who thinks that you are a good egg,

even though (s)he knows

that you are slightly cracked."

~ Bernard Meltzer

Several years ago,when this friend of mine was going through a difficult time, she sent me an e-mail where she called me her Anam Cara. I though, Anam Cara,what's that? I soon found out.

According to the late John O'Donohue's book, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom:

"The Celtic understanding of friendship finds its inspiration and culmination in the sublime notion of the anam cara. Anam is the Gaelic word for soul, cara is the word for friend. So anam cara means soul friend. The anam cara was a person to whom you could reveal the hidden intimacies of your life. This friendship was an act of recognition and belonging. When you had an anam cara, your friendship cut across all convention and category. You were joined in an ancient and eternal way with the friend of your soul."

It's a beautiful way to describe a close friendship, isn't it? This has become one of my favorite books.

Personally, I'm always drawn to people who are bit out of the ordinary. Individuals who aren't afraid to live their lives on on their own terms.

"Certain flaws are necessary for the whole.

It would seem strange

if old friends lacked certain quirks."

~ Goethe



"How rare and wonderful

is that flash of a moment when we realize

we have discovered a friend."

~ William Rotsler

Whether we find friends in our real-world lives, or here on the internet, it's always a special thing, and should never be taken for granted, in my opinion. True friendship is rare and wonderful thing, don't you think?

"A mere friend will agree with you,

but a real friend will argue."

~ Russian proverb

Friendship should be cherished and nurtured, and treated like the precious thing it is.

"Friendship is a plant which must often be watered."

~ German proverb

When friendship is at its best, amazing things can happen.

"A friend is one who makes me do my best."

~ Oswald Chambers

I wish you all a good egg, an anam cara, a true friend (or two or three or more, if you're really blessed).