Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person; having neither to weigh thoughts nor to measure words but to pour them all out, just as it is, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keeping what is worth keeping, and then, with the breath of kindness, blow the rest away.

*George Elliot

Arem shares a Zen story, for Lotus of the Heart, on being a friend and being befriended.

Friendship is a pure stream that flows from one to the other, and back, when the mystery one is converges with the mystery another is. The two discover that there is really only one stream. See, friendship is not achieved, nothing between friends is to be achieved, for the stream is pure, meaning free of achievement. If you turn friendship into a means of achieving, you sully the pure waters. Never, never taint the pristine flow of friendliness with the goal of achievement. Let friendship be Itself; let the flowing remain pure and pristine.

*AREM .