friendship

LOS ANGELES (Herald de Paris) - Friends are more shining than gold and more precious than jewels in our journey of life. Many of us have easy acquaintances. True friendship is difficult to find and harder still, to maintain.

Friendship is a powerfully active choice in life. We must seek, invest, support, disagree, protect, and honor those valuable relationships we share, who are our friends. This spring I began an experiment in cyberspace with the social network known as Twitter it was amazing to me that millions of people were connecting online by micro blogging each other in bursts of 140 characters. Could real friendships be sustained and developed under these circumstances? I would have thought impossible. The joy of Twitter is the gift of enjoying the gift of friendship everyday.

People who have worked together and yet lost track of each other are able to reconnect in a second. Non-profit causes are helped instantly, and frauds and charlatans are discovered and sent packing by the defenders of integrity. Twitter is an experience of in real life without the masks that so many of us wear in daily life. No one needs the right clothes, home, educational background or prestige car. We are reduced to what really matters - core values. You find out quickly if the seeds of a real relationship are present by how the twitter community responds to each other and communicate themselves. Slowly, many of us are building our own community within Twitter. We honor, squabble, protect, support, and most of all as good friends do .. We share love.

Friends hold each other close during moments of loss. We console. We inspire. We remind each other of the best part the human spirit. Although many of our friendships on Twitter may seem to live in cyberspace, in truth we are becoming a small village with huge accountability and impact. A town square. The people who walk with me on Twitter are a tightly knit group of loved ones, neighbors and true friends.

Paris is one of the most special places in the world, to me. It was in that beautiful city that I found my very best friend and began a forever walk with Jesus Christ. My journey has taken me from runways and photo shoots to the other side of the camera and a career in design. In America, our company is responsible for the design and marketing of over 15,000 lifestyle products. People often talk about our customers. My belief is that designers of red carpet royalty have customers. I am blessed to have friends, many friends, some I have met and most I have not, but we are friends, nonetheless.

Friendship is the act of supporting someone without condition or without thought for gain. It is that kind friendship that I enjoy in the Twittersphere, and also with the loving families who embrace my desire to stretch beyond the limitations of my long ago modeling career.

If not for those friends and their refusal to allow others to stereotype me and my future, I would possibly be heading Monday morning not to my office, but to an aging model cattle cattle call.

If you place every one of my friends into a room, you would find we all have one thing in common: We are all different. We may not agree on politics, religion, parenting and taxes, but we know what really matters.

Love.

Too often, we seek friendship with people just like ourselves because it is comfortable. Wise people reach beyond their boundaries and borders to find truth.

If every friend you have is just like you, please ask yourself if your practicing is true friendship? A wise woman I know said to her daughter, “If you look for a perfect friend, you’ll never have one at all.” I believe that to be true. Friendship brings many beautiful qualities into full blossom. Perfection is not one of them. Our friends will frustrate, irritate, celebrate and love us. We must do the same in return.

When was the last time you made a friend?

Please do so today. It is possible. Someone, somewhere needs the unique expression that only your heart can offer. Make a friend and watch the world change, today. It happened just a moment ago on Twitter. New friends are awaiting the beauty of your voice in the symphony of their lives.

Hear the sound of friendship.