Support for anyone witha mental disorder
Support for anyone with"Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty."
"I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them."
"Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person; having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then, with the breath of kindness, blow the rest away."
"Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being."
My dictionary says that a Friend is
1.) a person who supports, sympathizes with, or is
allied with another in a struggle or cause and
2.) a comrade, a confidant, an advocate, an
encourager.
My dictionary says that Friendship is:
mutual understanding and rapport.
Tully: "... friendship improves happiness and abates misery by doubling of our joy and dividing of our grief."
Francis Bacon: "... a faithful friend is a strong defence and to find a friend is to have found a treasure. A faithful friend is the medicine of life ... in this world."
Raymond Beran: "What is a friend? I will tell you. It is a person with whom you dare to be yourself. They seem to ask of you to put on nothing, only to be what you are. They do not want you to be better or worse."
"Everyone hears what you say, Friends listen to what you say, Best Friends listen to what you don't say."Author unknown.
Will it be in some kind deed I do, or in something I might
say?
Will my touch comfort some broken heart, or wipe away a
tear?
Will it help if someone simply knows that my thoughts and prayers
are near?
What can I give of myself today -- is there something I can
do...
To make someone feel special -- or cheer a friend that's feeling
blue?
Perhaps to lend an ear and listen...or sincerely offer a helping
hand...
Each day I simply ask for wisdom to reach out and touch my fellow
man!
Will my hug reach deep within a soul, and make someone's life
glow?
Will I open my doors to a wandering person that has nowhere to
go?
May I stop to think that each utterance I make, will touch
another's spirit...
And pray that angel's wings carry my words to each person that may
hear it.
Can I reach out to a stranger, extending unconditional love and
caring?
Can I show someone their self-worth, just through simple heartfelt
sharing?
I want to make a difference -- even though it may be something
very small...
For the smallest gifts of caring, are sometimes the biggest gifts
of all.
All of us want friends, but how many of us confuse the outward forms of hand shaking, smiling, back slapping and a kind word here and there with the real true inner feelings of friendship.
The key to genuine friendship is not in the superficial attitudes of friendliness, it is in the practice of good will, the habit of truly wishing the other person well.
We can foster and develop this habit within ourselves in simple ways.
We can try a little harder to understand friend's
problems.
We can give assistance without expecting anything in return.
When our friends are blessed with luck, we can choke our envy and
join in their good fortune.
We can become less competitive and less assertive.
We can suppress remarks that only add to friend's woes.
To begin, we only need to give a slight effort. A determination that from today on, we will be truly genuine in our actions towards others. When others sense within us the truly friendly, generous, well wishing spirit, a positive reaction will occur and they will return the friendship in kind.
Always keep in mind this great thought. "In order to have real friends, a man must be capable of being one."
Friend you have not once
in all the years
that I have known you
ever even one slit
opened the iron door
that guards the secret you
Never has it once
even imperceptibly
moved one fractional inch
to show a merest glimpse
even in greatest stress
Never a light a sound
one indication coming through
Could it be
that you have locked me out
or is it you have locked you in?
I have another friend
who in rare moments
opens his gates wide
onto radiant sky
He has no guard
to that inner door
He is not a citadel
His walls are white
With paradise garden light
enclosed yet in full flower
he has his hedges and his maze
his formal plots
and random pathways
with forget-me-nots
his jasmine-scented bower
and through his inner garden wall
past a hedge of withered roses
is a gate into a field
strewn with poppies
His secret is himself
not what he hides
If I walk
to the poppies' edge I know
beyound will be
a white sand shore
among gorse-strewn rocks
and still beyound
a sea of infinite blue
and across that sea faintly
islands beckoning to explore
He is an open mystery
a door beyound a door
beyound a door
With you there is one ultimate
iron barrier
Will it ever open
or will time
corrode it flake by flake
until it rust away and through
the crevices will emanate
the stale odour of dust
and finally be visible only
a dried stone chamber walled
with the obscene instruments
of your flagellation?
