by Ola Uchendu

Created on: September 19, 2009

A true Friend

A true friend is always there with you

Even at the impossible places.

When others avoid you because life has handed you a rough deal

And you have become impossible to live with or associate with,

A true friend remains by your side.

When others have all the good reasons to walk away and stay away;

A true friend remains by your side

Because he knows that's when you need him most.

With a true friend you can dare to be just yourself.

You can dare to cry out your heart on his shoulders

And feel no shame or embarrassment.

You can dare to laugh with careless abandonment.

Your crying or laughing can never be judged

As being too overdone. For a true friend does not judge.

He is simply there for you.

Cry for as long as the fountains of your eyes choose to flow.

You can laugh with that carefree joy of childhood days.

The child in you can only be free where a true friend is involved.

A true friend congratulates you in your achievements

And chides you in your failures.

But he never judges nor flatters you. He is ever so truthful:

It is only from him that you hear the bitterest of all the truths.

Where others fear to offend you with the truth,

A true friend dares to tell you the truth in love.

With a true friend you might most often quarrel or disagree.

But even in your disagreement and quarrel,

You know that he speaks the truth.

He holds up the mirror to your smudged face

Which you do not want to see it.

You may deny the image in the mirror,

But a true friend continues to hold up the mirror

Until you see the smears and smudges

And wipe off the dirt by yourself;

For it's only you that can change you.

Even if you do not change in any way,

A true friend never walks away.

He is there because he loves you unconditionally.

Beware when the persistent care of a true friend

Begins to offend and irritate you.

A false friend is making an intrusion into your life.

The false friend who tells you how good you are

Because you bestow favours on him.

That false friend that only remembers you when there is a favour to be asked

Seeks to detach you from a true friend.

Know it well that when no more favour is forth coming,

The false friend becomes scarce like a scarce commodity.

It is the true friend that clears up the mess you make of your life.

He it is that bears it with you and sticks with you till the end.

Look inward and appreciate that true friend in your life.

You might have suffered many ship-wrecks

Because you wouldn't listen when a true friend spoke.

Yet, the true friend stuck by your side

And suffered the consequences of your rash decisions with you.

When others turned their backs and scorned you,

The true friend searched out a silver lining

In the dark clouds and pointed you to it.

That's like giving you hope and a reason to forge ahead.

Only a true friend can do that for a friend.

A true friend will rather die with you than abandon you.

So be careful that you do not kill a true friendship

Because you might never find another.

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