Friends.

You could fill many books with quotations and comments on friendship.  This card from a friend highlights one of the joys of friendship - good conversation.  Chatting that doesn't need to be driven by pressure or question, exchange of ideas and thoughts that flows naturally as the hours fly past all too quickly.

Having friends, and being able to talk with them, is surely one of God's great blessings to humankind. Some will come through shared interests, others unexpectedly though social media or "chance" meetings, many though family and historical connections .... all are people with whom there is the freedom to share one's life.

Richard Gillard understood the depth of relationship when he wrote:

I will hold the Christ-light for you
in the night-time of your fear;
I will hold my hand out to you,
speak the peace you long to hear.

I will weep when you are weeping;
when you laugh, I'll laugh with you.
I will share your joy and sorrow
till we've seen this journey through.

"We do not so much need the help of our friends as the confidence of their help in need".  Epicurus 4th Century BC.

"Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.  For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow ... "  

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10