Comments on: Friendship in the Ordinary http://spiritualfriendship.org/2013/01/04/friendship-in-the-ordinary/ Musings on God, friendship, relationships Fri, 17 May 2013 16:52:20 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Teaching on Christian Friendship | Spiritual Friendship http://spiritualfriendship.org/2013/01/04/friendship-in-the-ordinary/#comment-746 Fri, 15 Mar 2013 14:12:26 +0000 http://spiritualfriendship.org/?p=292#comment-746 [...] After the class concludes, the students’ main assignment will be to bring these historical and theological reflections to bear on a narrative of friendship. I’m giving them the choice of writing on Wallace Stegner’s gorgeous novel about a friendship between two married couples, Crossing to Safety, William Maxwell’s tragic novel about a friendship between two adolescent boys, The Folded Leaf, and Gail Caldwell’s memoir of friendship with her (now deceased) fellow writer Caroline Knapp, titled …. [...]

]]> By: Nick http://spiritualfriendship.org/2013/01/04/friendship-in-the-ordinary/#comment-542 Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:16:57 +0000 http://spiritualfriendship.org/?p=292#comment-542 Wesley, you’ve probably already read this, since it was on Eve’s blog a while back, but your post reminded me of it, and I thought I would post it here. A beautiful picture of what it looks like to cultivate a friendship…

http://www.theatlantic.com/personal/archive/2011/02/love-hard-today-for-death-rules-the-avenue/70924/

]]> By: Reclaiming Friendship Love « Single White Christian http://spiritualfriendship.org/2013/01/04/friendship-in-the-ordinary/#comment-537 Mon, 14 Jan 2013 02:34:21 +0000 http://spiritualfriendship.org/?p=292#comment-537 [...] Friendship in the Ordinary (spiritualfriendship.org) [...]

]]> By: Charlotte Maxwell http://spiritualfriendship.org/2013/01/04/friendship-in-the-ordinary/#comment-509 Mon, 07 Jan 2013 23:56:17 +0000 http://spiritualfriendship.org/?p=292#comment-509 This makes me think of my most satisfying relationship to date, and that is with my best friend Rochelle. I had always had a ‘best-friend’, and loved my ‘girl time’, but it wasn’t until I experienced two failed marriages and the death of my son did I ever experience the soul to soul relationship of another woman. It’s the thoughtfulness, the intelligence, the quiet presence, the ‘saying-the-right-thing-at-the-right-time, the pushing me to my potential and not allowing me to stay in my comfort zone friendship. It is much, much more. Her soul connects me to my past and gives hope to my future. We found each other in my deepest pain, yet have grown to re-find each other again and again over the last decade as we each have outgrown what we once were as individuals and friends. I am so glad that you have started this site Wes. It celebrates a love I believe we all were created with space to have.

]]> By: Dave http://spiritualfriendship.org/2013/01/04/friendship-in-the-ordinary/#comment-503 Sun, 06 Jan 2013 16:00:50 +0000 http://spiritualfriendship.org/?p=292#comment-503 In my own life, shared interest is huge, just like it was for the women you’ve shared about (and I look forward to reading that book…thanks, Wes!)

But shared interest isn’t enough, obviously. I imagine that there are many, many people I see and interact with every day that have the same interests I do that I’m not close with and never go out to eat with. What sets apart the closer friends is mostly my initiative…I tend to be the one in the relationship who pursues, so I invite the person over for dinner or a movie or coffee or whatever. And in the multiplication of shared 1-1 experiences, I cultivate close friendships.

This can be done long-distance too…but it’s only really worked two or three times that way, and with varying degrees of success. It requires a lot of phone time, which is really tough to get a guy to sit on a phone for multiple hours at a time! But I’ve experienced that and it does work.

]]> By: “Friendship in the Ordinary” http://spiritualfriendship.org/2013/01/04/friendship-in-the-ordinary/#comment-500 Sat, 05 Jan 2013 04:15:11 +0000 http://spiritualfriendship.org/?p=292#comment-500 [...] Wesley Hill on a (death-haunted!) story of women’s friendship. [...]

]]> By: Friendship in the Ordinary » First Thoughts | A First Things Blog http://spiritualfriendship.org/2013/01/04/friendship-in-the-ordinary/#comment-499 Fri, 04 Jan 2013 18:37:17 +0000 http://spiritualfriendship.org/?p=292#comment-499 [...] (Cross-posted at Spiritual Friendship) [...]

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