|
"Sometimes in life, you find a special friend.
Someone who changes your life just by being a part of it.
Someone who makes you laugh until you can't stop.
Someone who makes you believe that there really is good in the world.
Someone who convinces you that there really is an unlocked door
just waiting for you to open it. This is forever friendship.
When you're down and the world seems dark and empty,
your forever friend lifts you up in spirit and makes
that dark and empty world suddenly seem bright and full.
Your forever friend gets you through the hard times,
the sad times and the confused times.
If you turn and walk away, your forever friend follows.
If you lose your way, your forever friend guides you and cheers you on.
Your forever friend holds your hand and tells you that
everything is going to be okay. And if you find such a friend,
you feel happy and complete because you need not worry.
You have a forever friend, and forever has no end."
"After awhile you learn the subtle difference
between holding a hand and chaining a soul,
And you learn that love doesn't mean leaning
and company doesn't mean security,
And you begin to learn that kisses aren't contracts
and presents aren't promises,
And you begin to accept your defeats
with your head up and your eyes open,
with the grace of an adult, not the grief of a child,
And you learn to build all your roads on today
because tomorrow's ground is too uncertain for paths.
After awhile you learn that even sunshine burns
if you get too much. So plant your garden
and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting
for someone to bring you flowers.
And you learn that you really can endure...
That you really are strong,
And you really do have worth."
~Veronica A. Shoffstall~
"Life is like one big puzzle. All of your friends,
every loved one, each new experience,
each tragedy and every joy is one of the pieces.
Some of them fall so easily into place,
but others we have to push and twist and turn
to make them fit just right. Eventually they all fit,
and when they do, your life's puzzle is completed.
But, until then at least one piece of that puzzle is missing.
Until you find that final piece, you still have
another new day to live and enjoy.
Don't get so frustrated when a segment is missing.
You see, someone greater than both of us holds that final piece.
When you have them all, your life will be over."
"Children Learn What They Live"
If a child lives with criticism
he learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility
he learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule
he learns to be shy.
If a child lives with shame
he learns to feel guilty.
If a child lives with tolerance
he learns to be patient.
If a child live with encouragement
he learns confidence.
If a child lives with praise
he learns to appreciate.
If a child lives with fairness
he learns justice.
If a child lives with security
he learns to have faith.
If a child lives with approval
he learns to like himself.
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship
he learns to find love in the world.
~Dorothy Law Nolte~
"Because women's work is never done
and is underpaid or unpaid or boring
or repetitious and we're the first
to get fired and what we look like
is more important than what we do
and if we get raped it's our fault
and if we get beaten we must have provoked it
and if we raise our voices we're nagging bitches
and if we enjoy sex we're nymphos
and if we don't we're frigid and if we love women
it's because we can't get a "real" man
and if we ask our doctor too many questions
we're neurotic and/or pushy and if we expect
childcare we're selfish and if we stand up
for our rights we're aggressive and "unfeminine"
and if we don't we're typical weak females
and if we want to get married we're out to
trap a man and if we don't we're unnatural
and because we still can't get an adequate safe
contraceptive but men can walk on the moon
and if we can't cope or don't want a pregnancy
we're made to feel guilty about abortion and...
for lots of other reasons we are part of
the women's liberation movement."
~"Women's Rights Manifesto"~
"Will You Be My Friend?"
Will you be my friend?
There are so many reasons why you never should:
I'm sometimes sullen, often shy, actutely senstive,
My fear erupts as anger, I find it hard to give,
I talk about myself when I'm afraid
And often spend a day without anything to say.
But I will make you laugh
And love you quite a bit
And hold you when you're sad.
I cry a little almost every day
Because I'm more caring than the strangers ever know,
And if at times, I show my tender side
(The soft and warmer part I hide)
I wonder,
Will you be my friend?
A friend
Who far beyond the feebleness of any vow or tie
Will touch the secret place where I am really I,
To know the pain of lips that plead and eyes that weep,
Who will not run away when you find me in the street
Alone and lying mangled by my quota of defeats
But will stop and stay-to tell me of another day
When I was beautiful.
Will you be my friend?
There are so many reasons why you never should:
Often I'm too serious, seldom predictably the same,
Sometimes cold and distant, probably I'll always change.
I bluster and brag, seek attention like a child,
I brood and pout, my anger can be wild,
But I will make you laugh
And love you quite a bit
And be near when you're afraid.
I shake a little almost every day
Because I'm more frightened than the strangers ever know
And if at times I show my trembling side
(The anxious, fearful part I hide)
I wonder,
Will you be my friend?
A friend
Who, when I fear your closeness, feels me push away
And stubbornly will stay to share what's left on such a day,
Who, when no one knows my name or calls me on the phone,
When there's no concern for me-what I have or haven't done-
And those I"ve helped and counted on have, oh so deftly, run,
Who, when there's nothing left but me, stripped of charm and
sublety,
Will nonetheless remain.
Will you be my friend?
For no reason that I know
Except I want you so.
~James Kavanaugh~
"Don't be fooled by me.
Don't be fooled by the face I wear
For I wear mask. I wear a thousand masks,
masks that I am afraid to take off
and none of them are me.
Pretending is an art that's second nature with me
But don't be fooled, for God's sake don't be fooled.
I give you the impression that I'm secure
That all is sunny and unruffled with me
within as well as without,
that confidence is my name
and coolness my game,
that the water's calm
and I'm in command,
and that I need no one.
But don't believe me. Please!
My surface may seem smooth but my surface is my mask,
My ever-varying and ever-concealing mask
Beneath lies no smugness, no complacence.
Beneath dwells the real me in confusion, in fear, in aloneness.
But I hide this.
I don't want anybody to know it.
I panic at the thought of my weakness
and fear exposing them.
That's why I frantically create my masks to hide behind.
They're nonchalant, sophisticated facades to help me pretend,
To shield me from the glance that knows.
But such a glance is precisely my salvation,
my only salvation,
and I know it.
That is, if it's followed by acceptance, if it's followed by love.
It is the only thing that can liberate me from myself
from my own self-built prsion walls
from the barriers that I so painstakingly erect.
That glance is the only thing that assures me
of what I can't assure myself,
that I'm really worth something.
But I don't tell you this.
I don't dare.
I'm afraid to.
I'm afraid you'll think less of me, that you'll laugh
and that your laugh would kill me.
I'm afraid that deep-down I'm nothing, that I'm just no good
and you will see this
and reject me.
So I play my game, my desperate, pretending game
With a facade of assurance without
And a trembling child within,
So begins the parade of masks
The glittering but empty parade of masks,
and my life becomes a front.
I idly chatter to you in the suave tones of surface talk.
I tell you everything that's nothing
And nothing of what's everything, of what's crying within me.
So when I'm going through my routine
Do not be fooled by what I'm saying.
Please listen carefully and try to hear
what I am not saying.
Hear what I would like to say
but what I can not say.
I dislike hiding.
Honestly.
I dislike the superficial game I'm playing
the superficial phony game.
I'd really like to be genuine
and spontaneous
and me.
But I need your help, your hand to hold
Even though my masks would tell you otherwise.
It will not be easy for you;
Long felt inadequacies make my defenses strong.
The nearer you approach me
The blinder I may strike back.
Despite what books say of man, I am irrational;
I fight against the very thing that I cry out for.
You wonder who am I?
You shouldn't
For I am everyman
And everywoman
Who wears a mask.
Don't be fooled by me.
At least not by the face I wear."
"Listening is noting what,
when and how something is being said.
Listening is distinguishing what is
not being said from what is silence.
Listening is not acting like you're in a hurry,
even if you are. Listening is eye contact,
a hand placed gently upon an arm.
Sometimes, listening is taking
careful notes in the person's own words.
Listening involves suspension of judgment.
It is neither analyzing nor racking your brain
for labels, diagnoses, or remedies before
the person is done relating her symptoms.
Listening, like labor assisting,
creates a safe space where whatever needs
to happen or be said can come."
~Allison Para Bastien~
"Hey, I've got a great compliment for you.
I might be the only person on the face of the earth
that knows you're the greatest woman on earth.
I may be the only one who appreciates how you
are in every single thing that you do;
and how you are with Spencer, Spence,
and in every single thought that you have and how
you say what you mean and how you almost always mean
something that's all about being straight and good.
I think most people miss that about you.
I watch them, how they can watch you bring their food
and clear their tables and never get that
they just met the greatest woman alive.
The fact that I get it, makes me feel good, about me."
~"As Good As It Gets"~
"I'm getting more pissed with every passing heartbeat.
Yet, one can only wonder, isn't every pasing heartbeat
another step towards death? Are we not in this world,
only so we can die? Is the only reason of living, dying?
What purpose do we have, to get up every morning,
to a scarred body, work, and do it all over again?
Are nothing but toys to a supposed god, moving around
and doing everything he "commands"? Does this not mean
that suicide is the easiest way out? People say that
you shouldn't kill yourslf because it's easy, well,
isn't anyone who's ever cheated on anything taking
the easy way out? So they really can't be saying nothing
and still not be involved with hypocrisy. Do we live
in a world of liars and hypocrites? Or do they just
keep us alive for ther own well-being, if they really
loved you, they'd let you go to a place where
you'd be in peace. This is were hatred comes from,
too many people thinking about themselves
and not letting others go, making them live a life
they don't want to live anymore. Or maybe,
the suicidal people are the selfish ones,
only thinking about themselves and trying
to escape to a better place. That, my friend,
is what I want to know."
~Ida Mehrnoush~
"People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.
Love them anyway. If you do good, people will accuse you
of selfish, ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends
and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway. The biggest person
with the biggest ideas can be shot down by
the smallest person with the smallest mind.
Think big anyway. What you spend years building
may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack if you help them.
Help people anyway. Give the world the best you have
and you might get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you've got anyway."
~Mother Teresa~
"You My friend
You don't always show it,
but I know that you care.
You My friend
If I'd ever need you,
I know you'd be there.
You I'm glad you're my friend.
Your smile makes me smile.
Your pain makes me hurt.
You My friend
I want you to know:
If you need me--I'm there.
make you happy,
make you laugh.
You My friend
Sometimes you make me mad,
but I can't stay mad.
You My friend
Sometimes I want to get away from you.
And sometimes there's nothing I want more than:
to talk to you,
to tell you about my day,
to hear about yours,
to laugh with you,
to tease you,
to share an inside joke,
that no one else would get,
to argue with you,
but know we're just kidding..
You My friend
Do you remember the time when...?
There are so many times.
You My friend
Don't ever lose the wonderful person you are.
Stay happy.
Stay healthy.
Stay you.
You My friend
I'll never stop being your friend.
Don't ever stop being mine.
You My friend
Just wanted to tell you:
I care."
"Have you even been in love?
Horrible, isn't it?
It makes you so vulnerable.
It opens your chest and it opens your heart
And it means someone
Can get inside you and mess you up.
You build up all these defenses.
You build up this whole armor,
For years, so nothing can hurt you,
Then one stupid person,
No different from any other stupid person,
Wanders into your stupid life...
You give them a piece of you.
They don't ask for it.
They do something dumb one day
Like kiss you, or smile at you,
And then your life isn't your own anymore.
Love takes hostages.
It gets inside you.
It eats you out
And leaves you crying in the darkness,
So a simple phrase like
"Maybe we should just be friends."
Or "How very perceptive."
Turns into a glass splinter
Working its way into your heart.
It hurts.
Not just in the imagination.
Not just in the mind.
It's a soul-hurt, a body-hurt,
A real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain.
I hate love."
~Neil Gaiman~
"It is by chance we met, by choice we became friends... Friendship is a strange thing....we find ourselves telling each other the deepest details of our lives...things we don't even share with our families who raised us...But what is a friend? A confidant? A lover? A fellow email junkie? A shoulder to cry on? an ear to listen? a heart to feel?... A friend is all these things...and more. No matter where we met, .... I call you friend. A word so small...yet so large in feeling...a word filled with emotion.
It is true great things come in small packages. Once the package of friendship has been opened, it can never be closed... it is a constant book always written...waiting to be read... and enjoyed. We may have our disagreements...we may argue... we may concern one another...friendship is a unique bond that lasts through it all....
A part of me is put into my friends...some it is my humor... some it is my listening ear... some it is real life experiences... some it is my romanticism...but with all, it is friendship.
Friendships forged are a construct stronger than steel built as a foundation....necessary for life... and necessary for love. Friends...you and me... you brought another friend.. and then there were 3... we started our group... Our circle of friends... and like that circle... there is no beginning or end..."
"A friend is someone who truly cares.
A friend is someone who's always there.
A friend will be there in times of woe.
Talking, laughing, and sometimes letting go.
Times alone we sometimes need,
But coming back we will do indeed,
There may be times we may not agree,
For you are you and I am me,
We may argue because of that fact,
But our power of friendship will bring us back,
Cause the love in our hearts we feel inside,
Is not something we would ever hide,
So come to me in times of need,
Cause you my dear always have a friend in me." |
