There was once an elderly, despondent woman living in a nursing home. She wouldn’t speak to anyone or request anything. She merely existed – rocking in her creaky old rocking chair, day in and day out.
The old woman didn’t have many visitors and she didn’t socialize with anyone, however, every couple mornings, a concerned young nurse would go into her room.
The nurse didn’t try to speak or ask questions of the old lady. She simply pulled up another rocking chair beside the old woman and rocked with her.
Days turned to weeks and weeks to months before the old woman finally spoke. “Thank you,” she said. “Thank you for rocking with me.”
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The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when they discover that someone else believes in them and is willing to trust them.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
