Friends

YP my good friend once sent me this poem when another old friend made some insensitive remarks. I still remembered asking YP, who Kahlil Gibran is. I didn't know he was a well-known Lebanese American artist, poet, writer, philosopher and theologian. Now I know :-)

"Friendship" - extract from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, published by William Heinemann Ltd: London in 1984 (first published 1926)

"And a youth said, Speak to us of Friendship.
And he answered, saying:
Your friend is your needs answered.
He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.
And he is your board and your fireside.
For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.

When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "ay".
And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;
For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unclaimed.
When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.
And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.
For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.

And let your best be for your friend.
If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know the flood also.
For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.
For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.
And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed."

Funny thing after I knew who Khalil Gibran is, I hear people quoting him frequently. I thought of this poem when I heard from YP recently. We have known each other since Sec 1. Now based overseas with her husband and kids, we keep in contact and see each other once a year when she comes back. She has 2 boys too, exactly the same age as mine. My boys remember fondly when we visited them 2 years back. I too remember that trip. She showed me the osthmanthus plant (which is my middle name AND a very fragrant plant) and told me it reminded her of me, awwwwwww.

My dear friend YP. This poem is for you.