How much does it cost?

Today I am relishing friendships. This summer I traveled to San Francisco with my dear friend, Janet. She was graduating from CIIS and receiving the hood of PhD in Philosophy of Religion. It is uncanny to me how our adult lives have run along along such a parallel course. We were together as undergrads in Philosophy, sharing friendships and late night discussions. We are together today as writers and students of Buddhism. As I watched her accept her degree after all these years of studying and writing I was elated and impressed. Elated to share the joy and impressed with the stamina, determination and patience of a woman willing to sacrifice for "a condition of complete simplicity, costing not less than everything" as T.S. Eliot wrote in Little Gidding. Today I am relishing friendship. I am particularly delighting in my times with Janet. She has shared my accomplishments by adding her own joy and she has taken me in when my heart was breaking. She may be a Doctor of Philosophy but to me she is a healer of hearts.

What is real?

An old friend came to visit this summer. She is not old but the friendship has aged, is deep and has stood the test of time. We met in college. I was a poly-sci major and this was my first Philosophy course, The Phenomenology of Dreams and the Imagination She was the Professor. After learning from her in this class I changed my major to Philosophy, she became my advisor and we became friends.

This summer her visit took us back to a beach we have often walked, she laid out her blanket and I was mesmerized. The blanket was so worn, so tattered. She told me she has had this blanket since her college days many years ago and that it carries memories. As I looked at this treasure of Cecile's my mind flashed to the story of the Velveteen Rabbit and the image of the loved up Rabbit. It takes many years to become real and a lot of loving. And you cannot tell just by looking if the thing is valuable or if it has become "real" because "that which is essential is invisible to the eye." I saw this whole principle in the tattered beach blanket, I knew this about Cecile already, that she a real friend who sees me and knows me as I am. So I took a picture of the blanket which, I now know, is the most lovely photo of Cecile I could ever have.