Short, Sweet, and to the Homies

I am a lover of my friends’ couches. From New York to Los Angeles and from New Orleans to Denver, I find comfort and wisdom in folks who have been in my corner for years.  Whether I have known you since fourth grade math class or we carved pumpkins sophomore year in college, I tend to keep folks. Life may happen. Years may go by. But if there was love there, we pick up where we left off no matter when it was. We laugh like no one’s business. We philosophize over the state of the union. We talk music and current events, sorrows and wins. We reminisce… boy, do we reminisce, and we keep building.

Being in relationship with folks teaches us as much about other people as it does about ourselves. We spend so much of our time hoping our relationships are going to last forever just as they are. But, we change. Life changes us. We move. We get jobs. We pass bar exams and get more degrees. We raise children. We change careers. We lose parents. We start businesses. We become different people, or if we’re lucky, we become more of who we’ve always been. We then should count ourselves blessed if some folks grow with us to the other side of our lives and decide to stay, and I am infinitely blessed.

As we traverse this world, do your best to take the folks who see you and hear you, with you. Pour into them. Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable, to express a need, to set a boundary. Be comfortable getting it wrong and mending it back. Don’t take things too personally (we all got our own lives and our own stuff, and we’re doing the best we can). Affirm your folks; tell them what they mean to you. Show UP. Our friendships need as much care as the other relationships that fuel our lives, and loving properly on the folks who love on us always puts more in our cup.