Being There

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Photo Credit: Cup of Couple 
Source: pexels.com
Last Sunday was a different and a little bit difficult for me. I met up with a friend at a pool because he got pretty bad news over the weekend and I wanted to be there for him just as he has been there for me over time. I can’t swim and I didn’t go near the pool but I was there. To be honest, I had no idea what to do or how to help, but I had to follow the one piece of advice I got over and over again, you don’t have to say anything, you don’t need to figure out how to help, all you need to do is be there.

And that was what I tried to do. I need to say try. 
So I dropped everything I had to do and just showed up and was there for a friend. And I didn’t need to think twice because he has shown me over time that he would do the same for me. It was easy to reciprocate because I have seen him do the same for me over and again. He held my hand through my difficult moments, he always showed up and there were a lot of times I knew he was just winging it and here I am winging this to the limit of my current capacity.

Lately, I realized that the most essential thing in being a good person is how to respond when things go south for people we love and care about. You don’t always get to understand what someone is going through, you don’t always have the right words to say, you might or might not be the trigger to the person's breakdown, but for friendships to work, there needs to be a reassurance that no matter what goes wrong, you got that person in your corner. And I wish I could tell someone this.
 
The point of this post is to let you know that being a good friend doesn’t mean you have to help your friend figure out how to walk through a tough season, but assuring them constantly that they don’t have to go through a tough season alone. And I am grateful to this friend who stood by me through my tough days.

Please leave your thoughts in the comment below, or send a mail to me at theestherian@gmail.com. Don’t forget to check out our podcast, Other People’s Shoes Podcast. For more info on that, please check the podcast page.

With Love,
The Estherian💛

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