friends.

When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares. ~Henri Nouwen

A loyal friend laughs at your jokes when they're not so good, and sympathizes with your problems when they're not so bad. ~Arnold H. Glasgow

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. ~Albert Schweitzer

The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart. ~Elisabeth Foley

Friends are those rare people who ask how you are and then wait for the answer. ~Author Unknown

It is not so much our friends' help that helps us, as the confidence of their help. ~Epicurus

But oh! the blessing it is to have a friend to whom one can speak fearlessly on any subject; with whom one's deepest as well as one's most foolish thoughts come out simply and safely. Oh, the comfort - the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person - having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.
~Dinah Craik

Friends are terrific. Not the "Hi, how are ya?" kind of friends... but the "Of course you can come over whenever you want!" kind of friends. The kind of friends that don't keep score. The kind of friends that insist on making time to visit. The kind of friends that will give you a big hug and not insist on filling the air with meaningless chatter. These are the kind of friends we all need to have more of. What a blessing it is to have friends like this. What a HUGE blessing. Thank you. :-)