Good Morning Digital Neighbors & Friends! Hi there friends from across the Local's-verse - Refugees & Joyful Bigots, Dawn Patrol & Early Birds, Conversants & Lurkers, Triggeratti & Later Dayers and of course Phamily! Happy Sunday to each and to all. A little poem from Dinah Maria Mulock Craik and some more Mother Nature the day.

Mrs. Craik's poem on friendship is reflective of having a couple of good ones in your life. Sometimes you find a space where such people can gather together like many of the Local's communities. No one capable of rational thought and self-criticism wants an echo chamber, but rather a friend or community of souls that helps us be our best. Good friends/communities help us trim the dead growth and add clarity even and often when there is not complete agreement. No one capable of civility and reflection wants to be under the assault of constant personal attack or be subject to projected assumptions rather than sincere questions. Good friends/communities listen to us with compassion and question with thoughtfulness. Uneasy moments are inescapable if you ever talk about matters of consequence, but good friends/communities can weather such moments with patience. Good friends/communities can find bonds that defy spectators who scratch their heads and wonder what those friends/community have in common when there are fundamental differences. The fundamental commonalities are often only known in the living and listening, taking the time to desire to know the person/community before you. Happy Sunday Friends!

Friendship

Oh, the comfort - the inexpressible comfort
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 with the breathe of kindness
Blow the rest away.

Dinah Maria Mulock Craik

Late Autumn in Brighton, Michigan | A late autumn scene