Friendship is the soul's secret treasure: that even under the regime
of separation one particular aspect of the self may discover and enjoy
the whole self in another particular aspect of the self...
When I lived apart from all that is – has ever been, could
ever be – I relentlessly disallowed the true self in me. But
that day you laughed as you threw a stone into the river, and told
me how you squirmed to bait a fishing hook with a worm: the sun shone
on your bare shoulders and the wind carried your laughter to my heart;
and I knew in every part of me you were God. The true self that I
denied in me I equally adored in you.
One day, many years later, I sat alone by that same river and
realized that the same was true for you: that you allowed me as the
one true self and held me in your heart as the divine subject. The
day I realized that you felt me as God the penny
dropped. If you were God to me and I was God to you, then we were
God to one another even while refusing God within ourselves.
My gratitude to you is undying, friend. For you persisted over
all those years and lifetimes in holding me as the one true self:
so in time and space I was able finally to remember that I am. Now
let me do the same for you.
