“With bread all sorrows are less” – Sancho Panza in Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
The Handwriting on the Wall
It was time for it to go. It had been there for one year and five months. It had become like a lucky talisman and had gotten me through some pretty tough times. It was taped to the wall right above my coffee pot, with no fanfare, and with no regard for how it would look. I put in that spot for a purpose—being an avid coffee drinker, I would see it at the start of every day.
You see, the message it conveyed was far more important that the aesthetics of it all. It was a note—well, not even a note at that—it was one word printed on a piece of paper, a sort of decorative sticky note. The one word? my name, printed with a blunt black marker. That was it. This was the very thing that got me through many a rough day.
Now before you go thinking that I am egotistical, loving to see my name in print, let me explain this particular note. This note came attached to a bag that contained poppy seed bread. It was left at my doorstep, right after my husband’s death, so that I would find it when I ventured out again. And so I did, opened the bag, and was touched to find a loaf of homemade bread. Bread made by one of my friends.
It was nice to have the bread, but the gesture was the important thing. Someone took time out of their schedule to bake and deliver something, all with me and my family in mind. This is the hallmark of a very good friend. And while the bread was delicious and meant I did not have to cook something or eat something awful when I felt like a snack, what really happened was that I was buoyed up by the friendship. There’s a saying that goes, “Good friends are like stars, you don’t always see them, but you know they are always there." And so it was with all my friends. When I needed them most, our friends “came out” like stars and their friendship shone with a glow that can never be described, that can never have a price tag put on it.
These are people that had come into our lives, people that my husband and I chose to never let go. Being “only children” we tried to choose friends that would be like family. We chose well. Perhaps I have not been as good a friend as they have been to me, but they have not let that deter them in their friendship with me, in their helpfulness, in their kind deeds.
So, I say to you—make many friends. Choose them well. Choose those who are workers in the vineyard of life, those who are honest, those who are kind, and obey the laws of man and God. If you choose this way, you too will have a whole galaxy of friends. Being a good friend yourself will yield a return that will appear when you need it most. It will come in the form of a cheerful word, a loaf of bread, a hand to hold, and a light shining next to you in this dark world.
