FRIEND ~ a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.

As I walked through the super walmart buying cleaning products, etc. I noticed that no one looked at me. I found that strange, I look at everyone and I smile at everyone. I started doing this years ago.

What was strange was that it seemed that the people in the store were moving fast, crashing carts and cutting in front of each other. It was the middle of the day, not a time when you would think people needed to be in a rush.

The store’s energy felt rude, impatient and unfriendly.

Which made me think of what a friend is – who are they, what purpose do they serve? If everyone in the store was friends – what would the mood have been.

Just because we look different doesn't mean we can't be friends!

~~With every true friendship,
we build more firmly the foundations on which the peace of the whole world rests.
Mahatma Gandhi 1869-1948

~~Don't walk in front of me
I may not follow.
Don't walk behind me
I may not lead.
Walk beside me
and be my friend.
Albert Camus 1913-1960 French author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th century.

~~I looked for my soul,
but my soul I could not see.
I looked for my God,
but my God eluded me.
I looked for a friend
and then I found all three.
William Blake 1757-1827 was an English poet, painter, and printmaker

I was not sure what ChIMe would bring to me in the way of friends. I knew that deep relationships would be built based on what I knew of ChIMe’s past classes and the people I spoke with from those classes. This brings me to the last quote. For me, it represents who you are to me.

~~In everyone's life, at sometime, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.
Albert Schweitzer 1875-1965  theologian, organist, philosopher, physician, and medical missionary