Showing up
To offer time.
Making time.
Showing up with vulnerability. Honest.
Receptive. Curious. Practicing intelectual hospitality. Spiritual Hospitality.
Friendliness.
Midlife Friendships
A group of islands
Our imediat thirst for connection filled
With family. We don’t even quite know or have time to observe what we want, what we like, what we need.
Women. Mothers. A different species.
Self reliant. Self suficient. Self confident.
It takes a great deal of humility to enter peers friendships
To ask for anything ever.
To offer. To wait.
It’s a dance we don’t have the luxury to engage in because we think we lack time.
Whenever we do set aside responsibilities
And we join the table of friendship
We go back home to our people, our tribe,
With renewed energy, fuller heart, hope, joy.
Being seen is not for granted.
Sometimes kids and spouses see us
A fleeting glance
We don’t know how to stand still and be seen
Fully. Vulnerable. Honest.
Is there room for our whole selves to be seen?
I’m afraid it’s been too long
And we have too much we’ve been holding back
Protecting others from our burdens
May we learn to step into the light
And realize it’s not a burden.
Just small steps. I don’t think we want to burst open like a dam
To Engulf everything in its way
This is a safe space. We have a foundation of faith and good boundaries
We have a support system
And faith and our first steadiest true reliable friend.