The world in which we live is a fast paced society, that brings great challenges to building and sustaining healthy relationships. Relationships are such a key to our existence and take concentrated time and energy in order to develop. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “The only way to have a friend is to be one first.” I came across a challenging poem by Charles Towne and thought I would share it with you:
“Around the corner I have a friend, In this great city that has no end.
Yet days go by and weeks rush on, and before I know it, a year is gone.
I never see my old friend’s face, for life is a swift and terrible race.
He knows I like him just as well, as in the days when I rang his bell.
And he rang mine, we were younger then, and now we are busy tired men.
Tired of playing a foolish game, tired of tring to make a name.
“Tomorrow” I say, “I will call on Jim, just to show that I am thinking of him.”
But tomorrow comes and tomorrow goes, and the distance between us grows and grows.
Around the corner, yet miles away, comes a telegram that says, “Jim died today.”
And that’s what we get and deserve in the end; around the corner a vanished friend.”
That’s a great poem, Marc. It paints a picture of what can happen to our relationships if we don’t take the time to develop them. I am going to put that poem in my files under the topic of relationships.