Author Celia Allison Hahn observes of soul-to-soul friendships:

There's a freedom in friendship afforded by no other human tie. Parents, siblings, children, and coworkers are visited upon us, and we are bound to lovers with cords of passion that lessen our liberty; but we can choose our friends. While we know every 'other' is a mystery, parenthood and passion can tempt us to solve the riddle of the enigmatic beloved. Friends, however, can acknowledge the mystery simply, affirm the otherness gladly...Friendship, more disinterested than passion or parenthood, offers a liberating distance. We don't aim to possess our friends exclusively, as we do lovers or spouses. And because this kind of love is friendly with distance, we discover to our joy that friendships can survive separation and even flourish across many miles and years.

It is not mere freedom but the paradox of intimacy and distance that marks off friendship as a special territory in the human heart. Here as in no other human bond we stand in the tension between freedom and connectedness, in a graced space apart from cramped family quarters and the vast uncaring world.

Sometimes friendship is a joint enterprise, undertaken side by side; at other times friends are engaged in "the mutual exchange of private worlds." Often friendship blends mutual self-disclosure and shared endeavors for the common good. Either way, friendship rests upon a foundation of commitment: my friend will be there when needed and neither abandon me in the enterprise nor fail to cherish my confidences. There's a special kind of grace in friendship. Listening to my friend or doing something for my friend is a privilege, never a chore. 

Whose friendship will you celebrate today?