What Is a Friend?

I received a scroll from a really good friend and this is what it says...

What is a friend?

What is a friend? I'll tell you.

It is a person with whom you are to be

yourself - your soul can go naked with him.

He seems to ask you to put on nothing.

Appreciating you for who you truthfully are.

When you are with him, you do not have to be

on your guard. You can say what you think.

So long as it is genuinely you.

He understands the contradictions in your

nature which cause others to

misjudge you. With him, you breathe freely...

You can profess your little vanities,

envies and absurdities - and in opening

them up to him, they are vanished

onto the white ocean of his loyalty.

He understands. You can weep with him,

laugh with him, pray with him...

through it all, he sees, knows and loves you.

I have been told, or described, more than once that I am a "good friend". What are the standards that were used and what does it mean to be a "good friend"? I really have no idea.

I've always believed that friendships require work like any other relationships. Some relationships are easier to care for. For example, that which you have with relatives. Neither one had a choice in the matter nor an option to get out, but somehow we try to make it work. Relationships with total strangers, on the other hand, require more from each other. They require more energy to keep and are much harder to give up. Time, the most expensive personal resource, seems to be the key.