A Friend is someone who brings out the best in you.

I have heard it said that a true friend is someone who tells you the truth no matter what. I certainly value this in a friendship. If your friends can’t be honest with you, then who can? I think a better definition of a friend is someone who brings out the best in you. Someone who reaches deep down inside of you and stirs that something in your soul that makes you yearn to be better, to take on the challenge, to stand against the wind, to strap on, load up and set out.

I’ve read C.S. Lewis’ Four Loves and understand the difference between intimacy and strangers. I have come to the realization that some of my best friends are strangers. I recently met one such stranger while out on the prairie. Interestingly enough, this stranger on the prairie gave me a book about a river. Not just any river. A book about the Mighty Mo. This is a river that so embodies Momentum that one rarely uses the name and the word together.

I’ve read many books in my life. The far majority in the last 20 years. I have books to fill shelf after shelf. It is not often that a book grabs me not so much by it’s content, or how it is written, but because of it’s mastery. This book catches me because the grandeur with which it is written seems to match the grandeur of it’s content.

This book is The River and I by John G Neihardt. I am grateful to my new friend Thomas for putting this in my hand and reviving long still dreams with in my soul.

Thanks Tom.