I have started attending the Toastmasters club of Port Orange, FL, and was assigned to give the inspirational thought for the 2014-07-02 meeting. The theme was sunshine, so I found this quote from Thomas Jefferson on friendship, which is also fitting since Independence Day is coming up:

In a life where we are perpetually exposed to want & accident, yours is a wonderful proposition, to insulate ourselves, to retire from all aid, & to wrap ourselves in the mantle of self-sufficiency! For assuredly nobody will care for him who cares for nobody. But friendship is precious, not only in the shade but in the sunshine of life; & thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine.

October 12, 1786

This quote is from his “DIALOGUE BETWEEN MY HEAD & MY HEART” love letter to Maria Cosway, an Italian-English artist who was living in Paris at the time.

I had written these comments about the quote, but decided not to say them at the Toastmasters meeting:

Good friendships should be nurtured and developed, not only because they are mutually beneficial and supportive, but because they allow us to share and be vulnerable without fear of judgment or ridicule. We should especially endeavor to be true friends to our significant others and families.