This was written sometime ago and i am sorry i did not read it at the time. However it seemed to pop out at me now especially since i have been thinking of these friends. Eric; The quote you gave from Serena seems meaningful to me now:
So too I chose to take personal and positive
actions in the face of planetary negativity. Rather than wallow in hopelessness, I enact the viability of
hope. I reach out to others with kindness and humor. I allow others to reach toward me bearing their
gifts of love and healing.
Sometimes we are not able to reach others with our gifts of kindness and humor but we can always make the effort to allow others to reach toward us bearing their gifts of love and healing. It just requires being in tune to them and their gifts of love and healing.