Over time, there is less to fault, less to condemn and less to
criticize...
Friendship weaves its thread into
The hours of listening,
The shared grief and disappointments,
The victories and the dreams.
A tapestry begins to take shape early on, unnoticed.
Over time, there are tests and expectations, unending days of the
same...
But commitments grow and cement themselves into the heart
While real patience slowly replaces tolerance
And gentle forbearance holds up under the fragile elements
Of passion's flaming and dying embers.
You can only build a friendship over time
You can only watch it grow
Until one day you wonder how time passed so quickly
And then suddenly you know
That the aging of our faces and the graying of our hairs
Are more than just symbols of our dying lives.
They are the way one friend knows that the investment of time
Has shown itself to be beautiful and tightly knit with love.
Nothing wasted
Nothing lost
Nothing given that wasn't without cost...
This is the tended depth of knowing someone else can see
Into your secret soul without grasping or wanting to be free.
They stay with you through thick and thin
And never leave your side.
This is the sacred shelter of unconditional grace
Where true friendship finally can abide.
Written by Rhodara Shreve
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