Friendship Makes the World Go Round!

You've got to have friends, all kinds of friends.  Friends are how the world goes round.  Friends are the extension of our hearts, those individuals who are with us no matter what, giving us strength to rely on when we feel ours is gone, loving us when we need a boost and sharing in the sad and happy days that make up in equal parts the days of our lives.  

Friendship is forged not so much by time but through

understanding with compassion, 

laughter, tears, invitations, insights, hugs, 

heartaches, happiness and the joyfulness

of time spent in sharing our hearts with another.

Whether new friends or old, whether friends we see everyday or friends that live in our hearts across great distances.  Friends are the vessel through which we feel the wholeness of who we are, safe and sound and in complete connection to our insular Tahiti and that space of heaven on earth. -- Excerpted from The Bare Melcessities.

We are in a time where we have lost our sense of the breath of humanity. Globalization has widened our viewpoint but has not increased our connectedness. Instead, barriers have been established, freedoms have been undermined and blinders have grown and grown. Rabbit holes have sprung up along the way and millions have segmented into these holes.  Within this framework, our friends, whose experience brings us wisdom, whose intelligence and caring teach us the meaning of kindness, whose presence stand with us, connecting, coinciding, collaborating, and sharing in this adventure of life.

The Bible offers two notable examples of friendships. The first is that between Jonathan and David, in which Jonathan walks a slender tightrope between his loyalty to his friend David and his devotion to his father Saul. The second is that between Ruth and Naomi, which gives us the beautiful verse that has been adopted by lovers but in its spirit holds the heart of true friendship....

“Wither thus goest, I will go, and where though lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God, where thou diest, will I die, and there will be buried: the Lord do so to me and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.”

Samuel Johnson, who knew the fragility of friendship and said that “life has no pleasure higher or nobler than friendship,” tended to place friendship on the same level of significance as marriage a joining with a brother in a space of safety and joy and peace.

Friends are the family we choose.

Here's to all our friends, our soul families and all the interconnections that nourish our spirit.

Pictures and Prose - excerpt from Melanie Lutz's THE BARE MELCESSITIES

"I was missing something. Missing something very dearly, and I became curious and excited by ideas of what would nourish me.

An acquaintance of mine shared a story and led me in a new direction on nourishment. She felt that her family had never accepted her chosen path in life, didn't encourage her on any level. She sought comfort in therapy only to be derided by family members with their chorus of "Are you still in therapy?" Her translation... "Are you still fucked up?"

The time came when she was starring in Tennessee Williams, The Rose Tattoo, and she knew what she needed, and she finally asked for it. In a polite note to her family, she requested they send flowers opening night and for the run of the show. Every day flowers showed up at the theater with a note that said, "We are proud of you." The flowers fed her, nourished the dream she held for so long, night after night, the flowers told the story of acceptance. She related how nourished she felt by the very sight of the flowers. When the show closed, for the first time in her life she felt full.

Note to Mel: Revelation.

Nourishment could mean many different things. Food wasn't the only item that could be nourishing. Nourishment could be applied to self, needs, desires, feelings, wants, ideas, you name it. This concept blipped so strongly on my radar, the signal growing stronger and stronger with each passing second. Beckoning long forgotten parts of myself. "Nourish yourself. Do it. Now."

Excerpt from Melanie Lutz's THE BARE MELCESSITIES: Walking Out. Waking Up. Getting Bare Nourishment chapter available at Amazon.

Get the support you need to go deeper.

Check out the website www.thebaremelcessities.com

Photography by Louise Lutz

Onward.

Ghandi said "salvation begins when you see the possibility there is another way."

It's been a powerful week...

Monday - Martin Luther King Jr. - We celebrated our Freedom
Tuesday - Inaguration Day - We most certainly celebrated Change
Today - The First Day of a New Era - We fly into Action

There are many things about Barack Obama's Inagural Address that struck chords... but. what I remember most was was one word -- imagination.

For the first time in a long time the imagination of this country is activated. The imagination of the nations artists, and poets, and dreamers. The singers, and the actors, and the show people are back in force. We have a place to contribute our time and talents. A place once again to stretch into new possibilities.

A power has been unleashed, a power to move mountains. the power of belief.

Freedom. Change. Action.

Where we got it wrong. We're going to make a correction. And get it right.

Onward...



ps. I love Bono... and. the fact that he isn't American is part of the movement of positive human color-blind-ness, being borderless, embracing oneness and working as humans. America's song is everyone's song. Thanks to the Oprah gang for putting it together.