“Friendship is the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring all right out just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful friendly hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping and, with a breath of comfort, blow the rest away.” ~Dianh Mulock Craik (1826-1887)
friendship
| affection, affinity, alliance, amity, attachment, benevolence, closeness, concord, familiarity, fondness, friendliness, good-fellowship, goodwill, harmony, intimacy, love, rapport, regard |
To me, there is a very strong word reflected in the quote that does not appear in the list of synonyms for friendship:
comfort
| abundance, alleviation, amenity, assuagement, bed of roses, cheer, cheerfulness, complacency, contentment, convenience, coziness, creature comforts, enjoyment, exhilaration, facility, gratification, happiness, luxury, opulence, peacefulness, pleasure, plenty, poise, quiet, relaxation, relief, repose, rest, restfulness, satisfaction, snugness, succor, sufficiency, warmth, well-being |
Do you see any synonym of comfort that does not lie within the boundaries of friendship? Where would we be without friends? The need to reach out to someone is ever present whether in times of happiness or despair. These are definitely the times and places where hugs are universal!
“Within friendship, there indeed abides comfort!”
If these pictures are true representations (never can tell with the capabilities of technology today), why is it humans have such difficulty coexisting?
catnipoflife 
Very nice, thoughtful post. I cannot imagine what life would be like without friends, My 96 year old Mom-in-law has outlived her entire huge family and all her friends and she says the loneliness is unbearable!.
That was like my mom, only she died at 91. I know of only one friend of hers still alive and she is 95. Thank you for sharing, Micki!
[…] “Friendship is the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring all right out just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful friendly hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping and, with a breath of comfort, blow the rest away.” ~Dianh Mulock Craik (1826-1887) […]
Sharla this was a simply beautiful post.
Mrs Craik is one of my favourite authors, writing John Halifax Gentleman, one of my three important books – as for the animals, they made me cry… I recognised the turtle and the rhino… the turtle adopted the orphan baby rhino and they’re inseperable…
The reason animals can love each other , unlike us – they have no egos!
Thank you for this lovely post XX
Wow, Val! I am going to have to send you my posts in advance just to get your insight! It was actually the quote that brought this all about. It was by chance I read it in an article recently…or was it by ‘chance’ at all?
Of course it wasn’t chance, sweet friend !!!!
What a very special and wonderful blog post, Sharla! I really enjoyed the pictures, the presentation and of course your words!
It showed me once more that it doesn’t matter how different one is (no matter human or animal), friendship is still possible – and is besides, one of the most important connections in our lives!
Thank you for sharing this!!
All I can say, is love it!
Ah, friendship. Whether animals or humans it is wonderful
We used to have a Somali cat (long haired Abyssinian) who was an incredibly sweet and unusually smart cat. When we got a really tiny ferret named Bonnie (Clyde came later!) Big Guy adopted her. Bonnie was Big Guy’s pet ferret and she could do anything to him, he simply adored his little pal. It was a joy to watch!
I’m waiting on a conference call with my two lifelong best friends… life just wouldn’t be the same without someone remembering what it was like to be 13 together.
Kate, that is awesome! Talk like teens and laugh ’til your sides hurt 🙂