Friendship, Friend, Friending

I am participating in a small and relatively new activity within the Unitarian Universalist Association of churches. #UULent (on Facebook) is trying to bring together far-flung UUs to have a shared experience. 

As the site says: 
Yesterday was the first day of #UULent! Consider joining UUs from all around the world in a spiritual discipline of deep intention and appreciation of our world, our place in it, and an openness to Grace in our daily lives.

#UULent is designed to be used individually, as a family, or as a congregation. For each day in Lent a word has been selected. Each day participants are invited to reflect on the meaning of the day’s word, then create a photograph that represents the word, idea, practice, or concept and post it here and/or elsewhere.

Beginning on Ash Wednesday and for each day until Easter, the word for the day and a related quote will be posted. Reflect and engage throughout the day, checking for the word and quote in the morning, then come back later in the day to add your photo* and to see the images and words others have shared throughout the day (*YOUR photo - please respect copyright!).

May this intentional practice and discipline impact your daily life in ways that bring you closer to your spiritual core and offer you resiliency for life.


Now, I'm not a photo kind of gal. You might have seen my food pix each February over at "Parsley, Sage, and RosemaryTime" so I am doing my reflections with words. Each day I post at least one quote and then I ruminate on it and ask others to do the same.

One important part of #UULent, in my opinion, is through reflecting, either visually or with words, on a word each day. You are engaging in a form of meditation. Meditation has been shown to have mental and physical health benefits. Even those not given to traditional forms of meditation or prayer can find the same benefits by setting aside a few minutes each day for targeted reflection on these words.

On March 13^th the word of the day was “friendship”.

The quote posted by the group on the #UULent site was:

Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends. - Virginia Woolf 

Think on that. What does Woolf think that friends offer that neither priest nor poetry do? It’s not just that there’s a person. A priest is a person. In fact, a person you are expected to open up to, to tell all to. So what does a friend offer that a priest does not? Or is it that the priest is in a seat of judgment whereas a friend is not. I think Woolf’s quote could make for some interesting discussions over an adult beverage.

The quotes I posted were:

There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven't yet met.  William Butler Yeats

Friends are the siblings God never gave us.  Mencius

Today's post at #UULent. The word for today is "friendship". To honor the word, make a new friend, heal a broken friendship, tell someone why he/she is a friend. Consider for yourself what it takes to be a friend and how you are a friend to others. What is the most important trait in friendship?

“Friend” is used so loosely. I have lots of “friends” on Facebook, people I’ve never met, yet some of whom I have grown to know their hearts because of our interactions. But is “friending”, friendship? What makes an acquaintance into a friend? Or not?

Maybe you'd like to join me in this venture, whether you are a UU or not. Here's the list. Hop aboard.

More Relationship Quotes and a Writing Tip

Hey, Authors! A few posts ago I gave some relationship quotes to build stories around. Well, here are some more I have collected. Surely one or more of these will resonate so you can create a viable story premise.

To turn one of these into a story premise, try these steps:

1)   Select a quote that speaks to you. (I know, that is so woo-woo! Just do it!)

2)   Identify the characters that first come into your mind for the roles in this relationship.

3)   Describe each character’s perspective on or relationship to the quote in 25 words or fewer. (Do you know that most people misuse “less” and “fewer”?)

4)   Where is this happening and when? What is the relationship of the characters to the where and when?

5)   Write down five “what ifs”: (Using the first one below) What if a woman’s boyfriend doesn’t come home one night? What if he called later to say he was in trouble and couldn’t make it there? What if the reason he didn’t come home was that a love child showed up at work hunting for her father? What if the woman saw her lover and his child, not knowing of the relationship? What if the child is malevolent and wants to hurt her birth father?

6)   See how that worked? If you don’t have a story idea going after 5 what-if’s, maybe you should choose another line of work.

So read, enjoy, and speculate with the relationship quotes below. Can’t wait to read your book!

Having someone wonder where you are when you don't come home at night is a very old human need.  ~Margaret Mead

Man is a knot into which relationships are tied.  ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Flight to Arras, 1942, translated from French by Lewis Galantière

If you want to feel rich, just count the things that money can’t buy. ~Proverb

Shared joy is a double joy; shared sorrow is half a sorrow.  ~Swedish Proverb

Remember, we all stumble, every one of us.  That's why it's a comfort to go hand in hand.  ~Emily Kimbrough

If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more. ~Erica Jong

Don't smother each other.  No one can grow in the shade.  ~Leo Buscaglia

For lack of an occasional expression of love, a relationship strong at the seams can wear thin in the middle.  ~Robert Brault

Sometimes it is the person closest to us who must travel the furthest distance to be our friend.  ~Robert Brault

Assumptions are the termites of relationships.  ~Henry Winkler

Life is like a moustache. It can be wonderful or terrible. But it always tickles. ~Nora Roberts

I like her because she smiles at me and means it.  ~Anonymous

Hope is a waking dream. ~Aristotle

Someone to tell it to is one of the fundamental needs of human beings.  ~Miles Franklin

In the end, who among us does not choose to be a little less right to be a little less lonely.  ~Robert Brault

You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you.  ~Frederick Buechner

Present your family and friends with their eulogies now - they won't be able to hear how much you love them and appreciate them from inside the coffin.  ~Anonymous

Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.  "Pooh!" he whispered.  "Yes, Piglet?"  "Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw.  "I just wanted to be sure of you."  ~A.A. Milne

I felt it shelter to speak to you.  ~Emily Dickinson

Are we not like two volumes of one book?  ~Marceline Desbordes-Valmore

Trouble is part of your life, and if you don't share it, you don't give the person who loves you enough chance to love you enough.  ~Dinah Shore

Lust is easy.  Love is hard.  Like is most important.  ~Carl Reiner