Ennead. Archival pen and ink on 9"x12" Bristol Board. Click to enlarge, perhaps you may see the ants!
This took forever to finish! I started this on my vacation and I thought I'd finish in a day or two. Instead, I slept, overslept and took naps.I also wanted to make this drawing interesting since it was starting to bore me. Everything in this drawing is a pattern of 9. I hope you find the 9 ladybugs and 18 leaf-cutting ants!
An ennead is a group of nine. Get this, 9 is one of my lucky numbers! Nine is my dearest friend's favorite number, and actually I just got interested in it because of her, but now I like it.
Anyway, I have been thinking a lot about my friendships especially that some old friends have contacted me lately. These old friendships ran through my mind like newsreels and as they kept running, I kept smiling. I realized that I have so many friends with whom I have lost contact and when we reconnected it was as if we just left each other yesterday. A lot of them were my college classmates and my fellow staff nurses when I was in New Jersey. A few of them were my childhood friends.
I started thinking what made these friendships endure the long absence and separation, only to resume as if we have been together for years. I thought about the characteristics of these relationships and there were two or three traits that always stood out.
The first one certainly is Love. I loved my friends and they loved me. Just because.
Secondly, we admired and respected each other. As a matter of fact, I think this was how we attracted each other's attention, whether it was admiration for knowledge, talents, skills and traits. There was enormous respect for one another.
Thirdly, we celebrated our similarities but accepted each other's differences. I remember very well how my friends and I did together a lot of things that we liked but we discussed, argued, debated everything under the sun. There were varying opinions and sometimes we never agreed.
But we were honest and we were not fawning or sycophantic. In fact if one tried to fawn, we detected it and immediately would be turned off by the gesture. We did not agree to do anything that compromised our virtues just because we were friends. It was important that we remained honest to ourselves and with one another.
We were always kind towards each other. We loved to laugh at ourselves but never at one another.
The caring in our friendship extended to our other friends and families even if there was no direct contact with other friends. There was no competition for attention and no one ever told me not to be friends with someone they did not like. Of course, that was not necessary. Chances were, if they did not like a person, I felt the same way. Even until now, my old friends ask about my family and my other friends. We brought out the best in each other and we encouraged one another to grow and cultivate other friendships. We never took each other away from our families.
We protected one another. Even in their absence we protected each other. We did not tolerate bad things to be said about friends in our presence. We were loyal to one another. We looked out for one another and thought about each other in our absence.
We were generous and giving but not taking. Ever noticed how some "friends" only like you when you have something to offer or when they need something? I remember insisting on my friends to accept my offer and they in turn did the same thing.
We did not use each other.
That's probably why we are still friends after all these years.
I go back to work tomorrow after my vacation. I will be on call!!! Oh my.
