To see a friend who has suffered the loss of all things begin again with trust and love, gives us strength to continue on.
Interpretation
Supporting a friend in their time of loss helps both of you to find strength and a fresh start.
This quote emphasizes the importance of friendship and support during tough times, particularly when a friend has faced significant loss. By encouraging a friend to rebuild their life with trust and love, we not only aid in their healing but also derive strength for ourselves, reinforcing the bonds of companionship and resilience in adversity.
In practice
During a eulogy, sharing this quote can highlight the importance of friendship in healing.
I am not like a pebble on the beach - a grain of sand on the seashore or just one of millions of human beings past, present and future. No, I am a unique human being loved by God as if I were an only child - the only fruit of his creative powers.
I must not permit the evil capabilities of human nature to sour my faith in the tremendous good that is possible despite the frailty of that nature.
The sinner who suddenly realizes God's love for him and then looks at his rejection of that love feels a loss similar to the death of a loved one. A deep void is created in the soul and a loneliness akin to the agony of death.
Our memories are our own, and we cannot blame anything or anyone in the past for any pain dwelling there. If we open the door to them or keep hashing over past incidents in our minds, we have only ourselves to blame.
Man can and does rationalize his sins. He finds reasons for all his weakness, invents excuses that first calm and then deaden his conscience. He blames God, society, education, and environment for his wrong doing.
Love has been defined, analyzed, explained and excused. It has been the cause of wars, feuds, heroism, martyrdom, inordinate passion, and beautiful friendships. It pulls two people of opposite temperaments together into a married state and permits them to live happily. It makes friends understand each other without the necessity of words.
To make a point of declaring friendship is to cheapen it. For men's emotions are very rarely put into words successfully.
And then there are my friends, and they have their own lives. While they like to talk everything through, to analyze and hypothesize, what I really need, what I'm really looking for, is not something I can articulate. It's nonverbal: I need love. I need the thing that happens when your brain shuts off and your heart turns on. And I know it's around me somewhere, but I just can't feel it.
Everything is connected. Surfing is a solitary sport. But I can tell you that some of the most amazing things I've done surfing have come from being a part of a tribe.
A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud.
When I was young I asked more of people than they could give: everlasting friendship, endless feeling. Now I know to ask less of them than they can give: a straightforward companionship. And their feelings, their friendship, their generous actions seem in my eyes to be wholly miraculous: a consequence of grace alone.
Into the dark night Resignedly I go, I am not so afraid of the dark night As the friends I do not know, I do not fear the night above As I fear the friends below.
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