Dear Friend,

I started this letter as I have all the others, simply because you were on my mind at the time. At this moment, however, it is more than that. I write you this letter because you are truly a friend and I care.

The characters on the front of the card I gave you mean "just as we share the joy, so we also share the difficulty or sorrow". I don't think I really understood this concept until now, until this point in our friendship.

When I was so inelegantly drunk on my birthday, you gave me no condemnation, you took care of me, asking only what you could do to make things easier for me. And with more recent tough times, you were there yet again offering frienship and support. Still I felt as if I were imposing with my problems, burdening with my needs. Your unpushy yet unwavering support of me despite all, however, taught me a life lesson. I had not reached out because I had thought I needed to be strong, independent, self sufficient. You made me realize that with the asking and accepting of support from a friend, I would find the needed strength to be those things and more. Thank you for that.

With the current turmoil and upheaval in your life, I begin to understand that friends are there for one another through anything, through everything. The good and the bad. Rather than being an imposition or a burden, being able to help a good friend through tough times, to share the difficulties in addition to the joys, is a priveledge.

If you will, please allow me the priveledge of being a true friend to you now even as I learn to do the same with you. Know always that you have my unqualifed support - of you, of your decisions, in both your personal and professional life. You have only to ask for what you need from me, have only to tell me what you want me to do. I will be there.

Bn.