Friends

In your lifetime, there will be people who teach you how to be whole.

People who understand you for exactly who you are, without questioning any part of your being. 

The support you need will be offered to you at the times you need it. Receive. Notice. Feel gratitude for these people and honor them. 

Let them teach you how to be good, and that you don't always have to.

Let them teach you that you do not have to hide. Let them teach you that you have the power to change, and that each change is a choice. 

Give up your ego, share your presence, seek wisdom. Seek to be known. 

You are a human and these friends that surround you acknowledge you as one, a human with a beating heart, an imperfect, broken, loving heart. 

Your friends want to know your story. They want to hear of your courage and your fears, of the things that keep your mind up at night, turning over with thought and possibility. Your friends want to know you exactly as you are, and forgive you when you hurt them or speak without clarity or act selfishly.

They want to see you not only in the moments when you are shining, but on the days when you want to slide down a wall and crumple into a mess and cry. Allow yourself to let go, to be humble, to be human. Invite them to share these moments with you, to know that you are not alone. They need these moments as much as you do.

Your friends will teach you how to feel alive in the moments that are uncomfortable. 

They will love you and make your heart feel so full you imagine it could burst in your chest. 

Their eyes will speak wonders simply in the way they witness you, and the wholeness of your being. 

Be with these people. See them. Invite them into your world, for they are hard to find and even harder to lose. 

Photos in this post by Ken Johnson of CKCImage.com (1), Tom Huynh (2, 3), and Brynna Bryant of Respiro Photography (4, 5).