Gratitude for Safe Places

It's funny, that I was planning to write about this same topic....but with a totally different spin today.

I was thinking about how good it is to have friends that will just let you cry. Just let you let it all out - without judgment, without giving advice, without interruption.

Even though I was blessed to experience that a couple of weeks ago, it resurfaced for me today. Some very good friends of mine asked how I was handling this whole Hurricane Katrina thing (this was about 2 1/2 weeks ago) and they asked the important question:

Has it really hit you? Have you just cried and experienced it all?

And then I did. I poured out every fear, every thought, every scary thing I had bottled inside since we first got news of the storm. What a tremendous sense of release to exerpeicne that. And they let me cry....they were'nt embarrassed, they weren't uncomfortable and they didn't feel like they needed to "fix" what was wrong. They brought me wine and kleenex and rubbed my back as I talked. And I appreciate them for that, more than I could possibly explain.

I figure anyone who has at least 1 friend in the world like that is rich beynod measure.

But there's another kind of "authentic" friend. Another kind of "safe place" within friendship.

That's the kind of friend who can listen without judgment when you tell them something that's hard to say...and even harder to hear. That's what surfaced today. I can't really go into any details without giving away identities and circumstances, but let's just say that sometimes I guess you have to risk hurting a friend in order to preserve a friendship.

So we are moving on from our current location. Thursday we head home to assess the damage, make repairs and pack up our stuff. Then we head to Houston for a week to spend some time with my in-laws. After that...who knows? We'll be looking for a place to stay until our new home is ready for us to move in.

But we're currently accepting offers, haha.

No, seriously, I'm sure we'll find some place to stay in the meantime. We always seem to land on our feet anyway...but this time it'll be with a baby and 3 kitties in tow.

Here's my questino for you today:

Are you able to be authentic in your relationships, to really express what's on your mind to your closest friends? If not, why do you hold back and how can you change that?