QUOTATION MARKS - Friendship by David Whyte

"But no matter the medicinal virtues 
of being a true friend or sustaining a long,
close relationship with another,
the ultimate touchstone of friendship
is not improvement,
neither of the other nor of the self;
the ultimate touchstone of friendship is witness,
the privilege of having been seen by someone
and the equal privilege of being granted
the sight of the essence of another,
to have walked with them
and to have believed in them,
and sometimes
just to have accompanied them
for however brief a span,
on a journey impossible to accomplish alone."

Taken from the book Consolations by David Whyte,
Published by Canongate, 2015