Friendship is a sheltering tree.

Shelter is not rescue. A friend standing near you does not remove the weather, but the weather reaches you differently when you are not standing in it alone. What makes that possible is time; a tree that shades you was planted long before you needed it. Most of the good a friendship does is done quietly, by simply being there when something hard arrives.

Think of someone whose presence has covered you like that, and say so plainly this week. Then plant a little: one unhurried hour with a person you would want near you in ten years.