Friends

What is a friend? Are our true friends more important to us than even members of our family? A popular, and oft-repeated Facebook post claims: “Family isn't always blood. It's the people in your life who want you in theirs. The ones who accept you for who you are. The ones who would do anything for you, and love you no matter what.”

In the words of Alain de Botton, a friend is someone “kind enough to consider more of us normal than most people do.” And when we think about the importance of friends, one can’t help but think Nietzsche was right to find Epicurus’s ideas on friendship appealing: “Of all the things that wisdom provides to help one live one’s entire life in happiness, the greatest by far is the possession of friendship.”

This past week I have managed to catch up with two wonderful friends. The next week will, I hope, see me have the opportunity to spend time with others. I am blessed with a collection of special people – not a large collection to be sure, but a collection nonetheless – of people who I consider to be true friends.

Then there are the new friends. The people we meet by chance who touch our lives and who, for whatever reason, reach us in a way that makes us want to open ourselves to them and to meet up with them again and again. The people we want to build a friendship with because of that spark they have that lights our hearts and our minds (and if we’re very lucky, our bodiesJ).

They may, over time, become family. Or we may realise that we were mistaken. Or they may not like us quite the same way we like them.

I guess what counts for me is that amongst all the people that I have met, there are a few people I find it easy to support and love who support and love me back.

More things that delight me (Part 2)

• The smell of eucalypts after rain
• The Fog Sculpture at the NGA in Canberra

• A good strong blue cheese
• Staying at home with a good book
• Ripe tomato with fresh basil and some good Murray River pink sea salt
• Waking up in the morning and knowing there’s no one I have to see, no where I have to be
• Making the decision about where to spend my next holiday

•  The look on visitors’ faces when they see Dubai’s faux Egyptian shopping centre Wafi in all its glory for the first time – think sun streaming through glass pyramids, concrete statues of Ramses II and general typical, over-the-top, Dubai style excess
• Stormy seas – waves pounding against rocks under dark clouds, with or without rain
• Swimming in a thermal spa in Italy in the rain in autumn

•  The faded splendour of Venice – the boats collecting the city’s garbage in the mornings, the subtle Christmas lights in December, getting lost walking and discovering glimpses of gardens, eating a crepe with melted cheese near the Rialto Bridge
• Dipping my feet into an icy cold river on a hot summer day
• Bach’s Cello Suites – Pablo Casal’s recording is my top preference but there are many other good ones
• Mario's gorgeous tower in Montemarcello 

• The sound of a lover's voice on the phone when you haven't seen them for a while ...

I want to break free

I know some of my older readers will remember Freddie Mercury and this wonderful Queen song. I've been reflecting recently about how many barriers we create for ourselves to prevent ourselves breaking free. Why is it that people need to feel safe and secure, even when it's clearly not making them happy and is, on occasion, even damaging them?

How can we remove the bars that cage us and take action to go to another place in life? What is the worst that can happen?

Any thoughts, encouragement, random hints, etc. welcome.

I know it will be worth it in the end.