Relationship Self Help

Terri St.Cloud (who founded bonesigharts.com) is the Queen of Open Arms. She shares encouragement and support with so many people. She's offered things to Square-Peg-People readers (see our Contributor's Page for a list). What she's offered me, as a friend, is unfathomable. As an example:

I recently wrote Terri a note telling her I felt like I was "sinking" under the weight of a a crisis my family has been in the middle of. It seemed as though the waves were coming and coming and I didn't have the strength anymore... Her response caused me to laugh out loud - it broke my heart open with encouragement and joy.

Terri said: "You wrote me today that you felt like you were sinking. We can't have that. I'm gonna grab your hands. Knowing me, it will be clumsy, I'll slip in with you, we'll laugh a little and then spend a long time pulling ourselves out! Oh well. I'll try anyway."

Terri summed up THE philosophy of friendship - of life- of how any of us have any chance of keeping going. She reminded me of the TRUTH - a message of Grace.

The Truth is...we help each other. All of us. When one is down, another helps pull her up. And we do that, not from a one-up/one-down position. It's not like: "Well, I am wonderful and I don't fall and I have it all together so I will help poor, lowly you." Nah, we do it like we used to play see-saw, just naturally bouncing back and forth from up to down and back again - because there ARE hard times - times when we will feel like we're going under...

The way Terri wrote about how - when you are helping someone else, you can and will often fall right in WITH them...I love that - she's so right! And then you both laugh and struggle back up...THAT is friendship/family/US - that's life - the way it's supposed to be!

There is so much wisdom in those words of Terri's. And I am so grateful!

To read more relationship self help articles, please see our "Dealing with Relationships" page.