Anamchara

It is not always easy talking honestly about the stuff stirring around on the inside.  While we may count ourselves as having many friends, we know that most are really mostly acquaintances.  It takes time and effort and and a willingness to risk vulnerability to develop friendship and we are often either too afraid or too busy to spend the kind of time necessary for developing real friendships.  One of the interesting things about the Celtic spiritual tradition is the way it encourages people to find a soul friend.  In the Celtic tradition such a friend is known as "anamchara."    

Such friendship is not of the common kind, but the kind that rarely comes along at all.  It may be experienced to some degree in the mentor relationship which we have with those who stand and serve as helpers to us along the way, but it really goes even beyond the boundaries of such a relationship.  It is not likely that there will be people lined up in our memory or our future who share with us in this way, but to count even such a few people in our life means that it has indeed been blessed.   

The person who becomes anamchara for us is someone who will be sought after, trusted with anything that stirs within us, and will always respond with love and compassion instead of judgment.  And, it may also be true that it is not a relationship which requires a mutuality of sharing.  Such friends are hard to find, not because they are not out there, but because we are afraid to seek them.  If we seek them, we may find one, and that might prove to be more frightening than we ever imagined it could be.