Friendship

SAT., JUNE 4, 1983, 6:56 AM
ST. PETE ‘B ‘G, CANAL/DOCK

This is a fair and appropriate subject, o son, for a Teaching on this bright tropical morning, but do not lose confidence in My capacity to provide you a title, without your thinking of such before the meditation begins. After generations of humans and servants uncountable I am still surprised when one who knows Me and trusts Me still has doubts about My capabilities and willingness to provide. Yes, the earth and the humans hereupon are My creations, but, yes, I still can be surprised by actions.

Friendship. This is a part of earth life that I planned and yet could not and cannot control. I can offer a commandment that you should love one another, but of course I realize that commanding to love is quite different than commanding not to steal. I command because I want it to happen, but it cannot be forced. Friendship is one of the obvious joys of life, and this trip is just reinforcing this fact. However friendships start, they need to be nurtured, and visiting is one of the prime ways of nurturing.

The best friendships are holistic. There is a physical element… physical contact, eating together, seeing and hearing one another… myriad forms. (Your singing is an enhancer of friendship, and, most basically, others can see and hear you… and appreciation arises from the physical perception.) There also is an emotional element, and friendships develop only when the emotions evoked by another (or others) are mostly positive and favorable. When emotions such as jealousy, envy, and anger are provoked by a relationship, friendship is certainly more difficult.

The mental element can be important, for it involves what you know about another and how your knowledge of why he says and does certain things leads to appreciation. Certain actions can threaten a friendship, but if there is understanding of the reasons and motivations for such actions, they can be ignored and their potential negative effects blunted. Friendships are part of social relationships, and it is out of social gatherings and events that friendships often commence. Still, social customs and traditions can also hamper friendships… can almost dictate that one relationship can become a friendship and another cannot.

The environment is an element that can enhance or detract. Some physical environments can bring people together and “encourage” friendship, while others make friendships more difficult. As a teacher you know that conducting classes formally and in rows of seats does little to encourage friendship. Conversely, having a class around the dining room table or at the picnic table at the Farm does much more to initiate and nurture friendships… with you, the teacher, and with one another.

Friendship is holistic, is it? Well, clearly one more element must be included… the most important of all. True friendships have a strong spiritual dimension, and the best are those in which the friends share a knowledge of and a relationship with Me. The spirit is the part of self that reaches out to others, and it is the spirit that urges you to respond to that reaching out by another. The spirit unifies and coordinates these other dimensions, so that establishing and maintaining a friendship with a person of well-developed spirit is easy, natural, almost effortless.