A Few Short Words of Thanks

In everyone's life, at some time, 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

Just a short note today to tell you all how much I appreciate you.  When I am feeling down, you are there to pick me up.  And when I experience joy, you are always there to celebrate along with me. That is what friendship is all about...and I am truly blessed. Thank you for being there.

When presses hard my load of care,
    And other friends from me depart,
    I want a friend my grief to share,
    With faithful speech and loving heart.

    I want a friend of noble mind,
    Who loves me more than praise or pelf,
    Reproves my faults with spirit kind,
    And thinks of me as well as self--

    A friend whose ear is ever closed
    Against traducers' poison breath;
    And, though in me be not disclosed
    An equal love, yet loves till death--

    A friend who knows my weakness well,
    And ever seeks to calm my fears;
    If words should fail the storm to quell,
    Will soothe my fevered heart with tears--

    A friend not moved by jealousy
    Should I outrun him in life's race;
    And though I doubt, still trusts in me
    With loyal heart and cloudless face.

    True friendship knows both joy and grief,
    The sweetest pleasure, keenest pain;
    Its sharpest pangs are ever brief,
    Mere flitting clouds before the rain.

    But soon the joy returns again
    With bluer sky and brighter light;
    The grief proves but a narrow glen
    All full of flowers, though hid from sight.

    And e'en in darkness we inhale
    The fragrant odors love emits;
    Friendship like this can never fail--
    On love's strong throne its monarch sits.

    True friendship is of greater worth
    Than words, though they were solid gold.
    To all the glittering gems of earth
    I it prefer, a thousandfold.

    One Friend I have who knows my heart,
    And loves me with a changeless love;
    I love Him, too--nor death can part
    Us two, for we will love above.

    A woman's love to His is faint;
    No brother cleaves as close as He;
    No seraph words could ever paint
    The love this Friend now bears to me.

Joseph Horatio Chant