a wild and unknown thing..

Friendship is a perplexing and delightful creature.
Limited only by my imagination, and often unquestioned in my thoughts, I have silently been telling myself "what" and "how" I shall be a Friend: it must be this, it cannot be that.. For years, friendship has remained humbly within the bounds of expectation - unable to spread its powerful wings.

These past few days have been spent surfing hurricane waves in the gulf.
From the moment I splashed into the water, and the first large swell washed over my surfboard, I have not stopped considering the beautiful possibilities of friendship.
The ocean speaks of fluidity and movement; it is a place that is neither safe nor predictable; it offers pleasure to those that know it, and yet always there is mystery, always intrigue - I love it for being this way. Perhaps the experience of friendship can exist in that same rhythm - a place between humans that is free to take whatever shape and motion we desire.
Surfing inside of these waves.. inside of their pleasure, and their terror.. I see that friendship can be open and completely evident.. it can be sensuous and filled with mystery.. friendship can be playful and hilarious.. it can be intense and quiet.. it can be the whispers across the lips of a lover, or the clasp of hands between brothers.. equal in their own right. A wild and unknown thing!
The possibilities of friendships are endlessly ours..
offering the courtesy of that thought to ourselves completely, and to our friends as well.





Andrew Tipton