Philia - affectionate love. The bond of friends

“We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over.” —Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

Philia is the love between friends and family. Often referred to as 'brotherly love', it emanates from shared values. Friendship for many is easy to cultivate and hard to maintain. Like many other forms of love, strong friendships are built on foundations of love, trust and mutual understanding.

"Whenever I saw her, I felt like I had been living in another country, doing moderately well in another language, and then she showed up speaking English and suddenly I could speak with all the complexity and nuance that I hadn't realized was gone. With Lucy I was a native speaker." —Ann Patchett, Truth and Beauty

It is important to know, intimately, who your friends are beneath the surface. How they love and how they like to be loved. Successful friendships require vulnerability or at least deep intuition. If you pick the right friends, to know them is to know yourself. That isn't a reflection of your similarity, but a familiarity that holds a mirror to your own self, and spurs you both to continual growth.