We had dinner last night with a neighbor who made the
comment, “I really like spending time with you because I can be myself.” Such a simple comment. Which prodded me to think about myself and
how often I can be truly, fully, freely, all of myself.
This may seem like a ridiculous question to some. It depends on all the usual things probably:
how you were raised, your personality, your profession, etc. But where do you get to bleed over the edges,
to push back, toss comments like candies in the air and see who catches
them? Where you are accepted for just
being who you are and can feel safe that you won’t be judged or misunderstood?
Perhaps my neighbor wasn’t saying all that. What I know is that each of us need to have
our “peeps--” those special friends who are close to us and us to them, and with
whom we can laugh and be silly and share our deepest secrets and woes; who will
listen and not judge, and where we can be truly, fully, unabashedly ourselves.
