Tapestry of Faith: Chalice Children: A Program about Our Unitarian Universalist Community for Preschoolers

Spiritual Preparation

Take time before the session and find a quiet place for reflection. What are some ways that you experience friendship? Do you have friends who live far away? How do you make new friends? How do you keep your old friends?

Reflect on these words attributed to C. Raymond Beran:

Friends are people with whom you dare to be yourself. Your soul can be naked with them. They ask you to put on nothing, only to be what you are. They do not want you to be better or worse. When you are with them, you feel as a prisoner feels who has been declared innocent. You do not have to be on your guard. You can say what you think, as long as it is genuinely you.

Friends understand those contradictions in your nature that lead others to misjudge you. With them you breathe freely. You can avow your little vanities and envies and hates and vicious sparks, your meannesses and absurdities, and in opening them up to friends, they are lost, dissolved on the white ocean of their loyalty. They understand.

You do not have to be careful. You can abuse them, neglect them, tolerate them. Best of all, you can keep still with them. It makes no matter. They like you. They are like fire that purges to the bone. They understand. You can weep with them, sing with them, laugh with them, pray with them. Through it all—and underneath—they see, know, and love you. A friend? What is a friend? Just one, I repeat, with whom you dare to be yourself. (Published in Bits & Pieces, September 19, 1991.)

Keep these thoughts with you when you are with the children.