Go and cry with a stranger! Do it in their car.
Get in their car, completely in. Take your heart out and put it in their teeth.
And listen.
Listen to them say they work too much.
Listen to them say they’re underpaid. Hear them geek out on how their truck works.
Let them crack you open a Bud, even if you think it’s yucky.
Listen to them talk about the land they love, and the wife they lost.
The way they can’t seem to find love, or to make it stay.
Listen to the way death scares them.
Relate to them admitting that as women in our late 20’s, we might have found ourselves attracted to relationships that are terrible for us. How it’s a necessary phase of life, to teach us what parts of ourselves we really need to work on, and because we’re turning into mothers, whether we want to admit it or not.
Let them tell you you’re courageous.
Let them lecture you on how you’re crazy.
Listen to them talk about how hard it is to control their teenager, or run their business.
About how they’d kill for their mama.
About being there when the Berlin wall came down.
About how they got in trouble and cleaned themselves up.
About how your health is everything.
About how family is everything.
How they lost their daughter and granddaughter in a plane crash in Alaska.
Listen to how they believe there’s good in all of us. Though it can be hard to see.
Listen to them speak of holding their baby sister in their arms as she slips away.
Talk about Cancer.
Talk about being someone’s sister, or brother.
Talk about being in the room with death and how it was beautiful, and sad.
And cry. Tell them the truth. Tell them you’re scared too. Show them you’re alive.
And then they’ll walk with you…….Always.