From Fear to Frolicking

I left off last time with the question, what can we do in our defense, when life blind-sides us.  My experiences as a child, and then later as an adult, both have something in common. Can you see what it is?

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If you are like me, you are painfully aware of the fact, that we are more isolated now, than ever before. Well into my twenties, I was always closely connected to friends. The older I got, and the more fast paced life became the more challenging it became to connect even with my closest friends on a regular basis. All our vehicles of communication today,  do not solve this problem. If anything, they leave many longing for the physical companionship that we all crave. Face to face time.

So what does this have to do with my two frightening experiences “at sea”? I was not alone.  Each time I was swimming with a “buddy”.  When I was a teenager I never swam in  deep water alone because I was prone to both legs cramping simultaneously and I did not want to drown or even come close to drowning. No one had to tell me not to swim alone, I knew instinctively.

I think this is how life should be lived, no matter what our circumstance.  Whether single, married, widowed, estranged, uprooted from all we know and planted somewhere else, we need a “buddy”.

Some struggle everyday, in isolation with sickness and disease, feeling as though not a soul cares for what they are going through.  When I first got sick, I was in that situation.   Even though I had support from family, friends and church, it was not from people, like me, struggling with the many issues of lupus.

I knew  there where others in the same situation who needed a “buddy”. Someone to laugh with about always being told how “good they looked” . Someone to tell them they are not crazy with the myriad of symptoms they experience on any given day.  Someone to encourage them it won’t always be like this. They needed a buddy to do life with lupus.

No matter what your particular situation, if you need a buddy I urge you to find one. If you can’t find one, pray for one. I bet there is someone close by just waiting to be your buddy or maybe there is someone in your life who needs you to be their buddy.

My “buddy” coaxed me out of  panicking, and into pushing forward, so I could  get free from the current that was trying to  suck me deeper into the ocean. Could I have done it without her? Probably. Did I want to? No.  Our time in the water was rich, frolicking in the deep. It was certainly better than being  out there alone.

 Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor:  If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. – King Solomon

Blessings, Leslie Rose K

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Remember, we all stumble, every one of us.  That’s why it is a comfort to go hand in hand.” ~Emily Kimbrough~
“Friends are those rare people who ask how you are and then wait to hear the answer”
“Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.”   ~Helen Keller~