The Listening Ear

I ponder the importance of friends and friendships, thank God for the many friends I have and have had through the course of my lifetime thus far and wonder about being a good friend.

Have I been a good friend?  Not always.

Am I a good friend now?  Most times, at least I think so.

What makes a good friend?

So many things go into the hodgepodge of friendship, but the most important, I think, is a listening ear . . . an ear that hears what is unsaid as loud and clear as what is said. . . an ear that hears truths spoken into the silences in between . . . an ear that waits patiently to hear the next thing, the hard thing . . .

For all the blessed listening ears that have inclined towards me over the years, I say thank you.  Thank you especially for hearing what I could not speak.

And for all those voices longing for my ears, I say I am ready to listen.

In the words and in the silences . . .
In the laughing confidences
and shared sufferings
In the miasma of daily life
and the star-gazing plane of grand ideas,
May it always be well between us.