How a Desert Journey Taught Me the True Value of Friendship and Forgiveness

mallet
WISE WORDS TO LIVE BY

Two friends were traveling together through the desert, and at one moment in their journey, they quarreled over a foolish issue. One turned around and slapped his partner on his face. The other, quite offended, without uttering a word sat down and wrote on the sand: "Today my best friend slapped me on the face!"

They kept their travels and finally arrived at an oasis where they decided to take a rest. The one that had been slapped and offended quickly jumped in the water. The water was deeper than he thought and, not knowing how to swim, he began to drown. His friend, without a minute of hesitation, ran to the shore, jumped in, and swam to his rescue. Pulling him out of the water, he checked his breathing and took a towel and covered his friend's shoulders with it.

Once recovered from his near-death experience, the friend that had previously been slapped, one more time sat on the sand near a large flat rock where he chiseled: "Today my best friend saved my life!"

His friend, quite surprised, asked him, "Why did you first write in the sand that I slapped you but now you chiseled in the rock that I saved your life?"

With a big smile, the friend replied, "When a good friend offends me, I let the changing sands of time erase the incident; but a good friend risks his life or does something from his heart for me, I make sure that time does not erase it nor forget it."

- Author Unknown.

"Friends, do not mind the small issues in your friendship, and if you do so, it might be the big mistake you are committing in your life. Friends are the valuable assets in the balance sheet of your life. Care for them..."

Regards,

Mallet
GOWTAMTULUGU
The story is good, Mallet. It describes the value one should give to friendship. Even though one slapped the other, he didn't feel inferior, and his ego did not come out. So, I feel this is how friendship should be.

Regards,
Gowtam
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