What draws us towards each other? What do we really see reflected in others?

Is it simply a reflection of us?

Do we repel others because what we see we do not love in ourselves?

Wonder, wonder... We are what we are... We believe what we want to believe

Someone once told me in confidence after the loss of her friend that she was not mourning over the death of her friend, but for the absence of what she had experienced so often in her presence.... She would no longer be able to comfort that friend with her affection or receive her friend's attentions... wouldn't be able to tell her friend how much her gentle presence had meant to her...She said she treasured how much her friend saw in her... This friend had accepted her flaws and faults, in a word everything...She believes that this was an extraordinary find in a friend.... In a statement of awe and wonder she said that this friend had even found some of the rough sides of her character attractive!

She felt prized. Her friend didn't demand more than she was willing or able to share...

This friend's gentleness and generosity was blissfully poured out on her time after time. Upon reflection she told me her friend's example made her want to do the same thing for others...In this small manner... she thought she would give tribute to her friend's life. All that she received as a beneficiary would not be wasted. She would continue her friend's legacy to the world...in this way love would indeed "spring eternal"...

I am always surprised at such sensitivity ...clarity of expression and perception in others. This person has caught the essence of being human, of real exchanges of love with all of its imperfection, pain and empathy...Her friend's love spurs her on to make sure that the memory and reality of this experience is never lost...She embraces the goodness, the generosity and gentleness she found in her...In this way the good in the world continues to overcome the evil...

If each person were to extend what he or she learned or discovered in others...like the goodness, the beauty, the generosity, the virtue that exists somewhere in the best and worst of us... into their own daily practice of living and loving others in return...why there would be no end in sight to anyone's life!

It is like casting light into a tunnel, a net into the sea, shining candlelight into the darkness. We incorporate the good we see in others into our own behavior and so they live on through us... Life is passed along..-In a sense we become immortal and so do those we continue to love in the world....It is endless..."Love springs eternal"...

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