Who Are Your People?

Who are your people?

Who comes when the phone rings?  Who is on the other side when there’s a knock at the door?

Whose jokes do you know by heart?  Who makes you laugh?  Who feels like home?

In times of joy, who do you seek to celebrate with?  In times of sadness, on whose shoulder do you cry?

Who falls to their knees when yours are too battered and bruised and broken?

Who holds you up when your legs are unsteady?

Who loves your kids when they are lonely and vulnerable?

I used to be afraid of friendship.  I used to equate it with control and judgment and pain.  I told myself I didn’t need many people.  I believed my small circle was enough.  No more were needed; no more were welcome.

It’s a trap I believe many of us fall into.  We are so busy and harried and all we want to do is lock our doors at night and keep ourselves in and the world out.  Other people are messy.  They require work.  They require sacrifice.

After years of hiding from people in a burrow of fear and doubt, I slowly started to open myself up again.  It was hard.  It was scary.  To this day, I still silently hope a cancellation will come ringing before I am about to go out there into that world.  My hands shake; my heart races.

But still I go.

Because people are the blessings we are given.

We lie and tell ourselves that our careers will make us happy.  We tell ourselves achievement is key.  We believe big houses will fulfill us.

But when it all come to an end and we are left with a heart exposed to the world, will the careers hold our hands?  Will the achievements remind us of hope?  Will our fancy houses be any more than a soft place to lie our heads?

When we find ourselves standing above an abyss, fearing the fall, hopeless that any more good can come, it is our people who will bring us back.  Who will remind us of what life is.  Who will be an example of how to start living again.  Who will breathe for us when we are unable.

So who do you hold close?

Who do you look to?

Who are your people?

Hold tight.  Don’t let them go.

They are what is indisposable.