Your friend is your needs answered.
He is your field which you sow with love
and reap with thanksgiving.
And he is your board and your fireside.
For you come to him with your hunger,
and your seek him for peace.
When your friend speaks his mind you
fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor
do you withhold the "ay".
And when he is silent your heart
ceases not to listen to his heart;
For without words, in friendship, all
thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born
and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.
When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
For that which you love most in him may
be clearer in his absence, as the mountain
to the climber is clearer from the plain.
And let there be no purpose in friendship
save the deepening of the spirit.
For love that seeks aught but the disclosure
of its own mystery is not love but
a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.
And let your best be for your friend.
If he must know the ebb of your tide,
let him know its flood also.
For what is your friend that you should
seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.
For it is his to fill your need, but not
your emptiness.
And in the sweetness of friendship let
there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things the heart
finds its morning and is refreshed.

And if this day is not a fulfillment of
your needs and my love, then let it be a
promise till another day.
Man's needs change, but not his love, nor
his desire that his love should satisfy his needs.
Know therefore, that from the greater silence I shall return.
The mist that drifts away at dawn, leaving
but dew in the fields, shall rise and gather
into a cloud and then fall down in rain.
And not unlike the mist have I been.
In the stillness of the night I have walked
in your streets, and my spirit has entered your houses.
And your heart-beats were in my heart,
and your breath was upon my face, and I knew you all.
Ay, I knew your joy and pain, and
in your sleep your dreams were my dreams.
And oftentimes I was among you a lake
among the mountains
I mirrored the summits in you and the
bending slopes, and even the passing flocks
of your thoughts and your desires.
And to my silence came the laughter of
your children in streams,
and the longing of your youths in rivers.