Be Gentle With You

I’m staying with dear friends this weekend.

The dearest of friends.

The kind of friends you can call up and say, “Hey, when I come stay with you, I need to have a special diet.” And they say, “Okay! Just tell us what you need!” And they make Whole 30 compliant chili and fantastic egg/sausage cups…and you feel welcome and nourished and whole while you are in their home.

I pray you have such friends. I really do. Every single human deserves safe places inhabited by safe people with nourishing food, understanding hearts, and similar enough senses of humor that you can make each other laugh and laugh.

The “courage” bracelet I’m wearing in this picture arrived in the mail a couple years ago when my life was very dark, and it was hard to breathe. A woman I knew at a church I used to attend sent it to me. We weren’t great friends, but I liked her very much. She had heard that life was hard, and she thought to buy this bracelet and send it to me out of the blue.

I pray you have a friend like that.

I pray I am a friend like that.

15 years ago, I got divorced. It was so hard. Harder than anything in my life up to that point.

I bought myself a new ring to wear on the finger that had formerly worn a wedding ring. I haven’t been able to wear it in a long time because it hasn’t fit. This week, with slimmer, healthier, non-inflamed fingers, I slipped it back on…and I remembered how it felt all those years ago to buy a piece of jewelry for myself – with my favorite word on it: HOPE.

I pray you can be a friend to yourself.

I pray you can slip HOPE back on your finger, too.