Soul friendship...

"Instead, in a soul friendship, we honor and recognize each other's essential nature. Our roles are more fluid; our respect is mutual; our deeply felt bond does not rely on doing as much as being. Soul friendship requires a loyalty to more than the passing feelings and opinions of the cherished one, a fidelity to more than temporary goals or appearances. It demands authenticity, or loyalty to soul. In effect, it demands that we honor the Third Body of the friendship. In return, it offers a place where we don't have to hide."

- Romancing The Shadow , Illuminating The Dark Side Of The Soul

Oh, I love the last sentence..." ...it offers a place where we don't have to hide...."

Sensei Myriam

Friendship....

"Jung has pointed out that bitterness and wisdom form a pair of opposites. 'Where there is bitterness, wisdom is lacking, and where wisdom is, there can be no bitterness.' Tears, sorrow, and disappointment are bitter,he says. But wisdom is the comforter in suffering.

Clearly, our friends can be a source of countless disappointments and can evoke shadowy feelings of anger, envy, and betrayal. As these feelings accumulate in our hearts, disappointment can become the mother of bitterness, causing us to harden against our friends and turn them into foes. But disappointment can also become a strong incentive to clarify our perceptions of the Other and to modify our feelings accordingly. That is to say, disappointment can lead to shadow-work, which puts us on the path of wisdom and softens our hearts with compassion. As we develop the tools of shadow-work, we also enhance our capacities to deal with the issues of friendship: loyalty, abandonment, caretaking, addiction, racism, and betrayal...."

-Romancing The Shadow, Illuminating the Dark Side of the Soul