A writing circle of friends!

I'm not sure how this happened, but my guess is that there are matchmaking angels just having a ball putting interesting people in each other's pathway.
With the advent of super technology and my finally getting a little more "techie" oriented I have friends from all over the world with a variety of gifts to share from their journey. One of those is Al Farthing, a woodcarver, intellectually curious and wise...a really good guy to communicate with. He and his wife of many years are from Nova Scotia and here is his gift for today....a shared essay. Note his web site address under artists worth looking at. Thanks Al!

Being There for Each Other by Mark Nepo

I have been blessed to have good friends. One reason is that, in addition to being there for each other, which is essential, we are committed to being there for each other in a deeper sense. I mean we inquire into each other. We climb each other the way we would a rocky coast to get that undeniable view of the sea. And then we wait, to listen to that sea, to watch how God tosses it about. We scale down to the sands to see what the storms have cast ashore. In particular, though we know each other well, and though there are times we can finish each other's sentences, or watch a situation unfold and whisper to one another, There he goes again; still, we mostly wake, and look into each other's eyes and ask, Who are you? Are you alive? Just what is that like?

To face each other, especially those you love and to ask such questions takes courage. It takes remembering that life is unrepeatable and that living isn't guaranteed. It requires listening to what comes back, even when it doesn't make sense. In truth, we are each a country unto ourselves, made of the same earth, with the same water streaming through, each with a language all our own, learned in the interior, each worth knowing. Yet from God's eye, there are no countries, no policies, no visas. There is only one earth softened by one sweet water. So open your country like a coat when I am cold and I'll open mine, till we dream ourselves warm and sip the one water, learning how to drink each other.

It is often the courage to ask that keeps us going, and the courage to sip from each other that keeps us well. For when a friend asks a question, like they really want to know, like they need to know, of where you've been and what you're seeing from your small quarter of eternity-that is courage sparking courage. That kind of love turns us inside out!