| The Every Day of Life |
Chapter 20 |
Page 4 |
“There was a smile
Which out of her eyes’ blue heaven fell
As the sunbeams dart.
The beautiful smile fell into my heart,
And, falling, was folded in love’s sweet shell,
And the beautiful smile became a song
In my heart.”
Even brief moments of worthy companionship leave their mark of blessing. Then, who can tell the power of a close and long-continued friendship, running through many happy years, sharing the deepest experiences, heart and heart knit together, life woven as it were into one web? There is a little poem by a gentle writer, which asks, “What is the best a friend can be? And answers it. A friend is not only shelter, comfort, rest, refreshment, a guide, but also an atmosphere warm with all kindly inspirations of pure life, which has no taint of death.
“Our friend is an unconscious part
Of every true beat of our heart;
A strength, a growth, whence we derive
God’s health, that keeps the world alive.
Can friend lose friend? Believe it not.
The tissue whereof life is wrought,
Weaving the separate into one,
Nor end hath, nor beginning; spun
From subtle threads of destiny,
Finer than thought of man can see.
God takes not back his gifts divine;
While thy soul lives, thy friend is thine.”
This is not sentimental exaggeration. Life indeed flows into life in true sympathetic union, and the two, blend as the fragrance of the flowers blends with the air into which it is diffused. And ever after, each life carries something of the other in its very fibre and tissue, something ineradicable. No one of us is ever altogether the same again when we have had a friend or even an intimate companion for a time.
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