About Knowing Who Are Your True Friends
Let's talk about knowing who are your true friends. It's a little interlude from the nonsense and madness that's descended on us with the arrival of our C-Virus Mess, combined with the dysfunction created in our markets by the Fed since the 2008 crisis. (Actually they've messed with markets in extraordinary ways starting a bit before that, but by 2008 they ramped things up beyond anything previously imagined - a subject for another time.)
While the stock market will be open tomorrow - Columbus Day - the bond market will be closed. So for some of us who trade for a profession, it will be holiday weekend. Same for other folks who don't work in financial services: some will be off, some will have to work. For other Americans, it's a "sort-of" holiday as well. In any case, it just seemed like a logical spot to step back and take a break from thinking about the economy, politics, markets, the Mess and all that emanates from such an unholy alliance.
With that in mind, this thought: When things aren't going great, it's great to have a true friend or two. And when I say "true" I mean just that.
A true friend stick with you no matter what's going on either in their lives or yours. They're faithful in a special way when you really need a hand, or when you're simply down and out, for whatever reason. You can count on them.
If you're blessed with one or more of these, count said blessing(s). Some folks may not have even one such friend.
Or do they?
Actually, we all do: Those of us who can't count a single other person as a true friend really do have one they may not have considered; and those who can count one or more flesh and blood relations or friends as true friends may have either forgotten or possibly not been aware of their truest friend.
Let's get down to specifics, staring with a reminder: October is the month of the Holy Rosary, but also of the Holy Angels. We celebrate the Archangels, separately Michael, and our Guardian Angels on specific days. But the entire month is dedicated to them. (At least this is noted in our traditional Catholic calendar.)Even Catholics may or may not know this. (So many of us weren't really taught our religions properly in recent decades.)
I've spent most of my life ignoring my own Guardian Angel. Despite reading about the importance of developing a "relationship" with my Guardian Angel, it's been hit and miss.
Many of us Catholics - and maybe some others - know this little poem:
To whom God's love entrusts me here.
Ever this day be at my side,
To light and guard, to rule and guide.
Amen.
We learn this as children. But Pope John XXIII famously prayed this throughout his life. He died in his 80s. You don't have to be a little child to pray it.
Despite praying it, I still struggle with that relationship suggestion.
I'm not sure if this little poem I stumbled on will help, but it may. Maybe it will help you to develop some relationship with your Guardian Angel (if you don't already have one developed). At the very least, it opened my eyes to something I hadn't really thought about. I found it moving, and so wanted to share it:
"My earliest friend, mine from the day,
When first I drew my breath;
My latest friend, who shall be mine,
Unfailing, to my death."
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