A Message to My Friends:

Times have been tough lately and I am comforted and awed by the way we’ve “huddled” together as if some inert instinct is drawing us to each other to protect and soothe. I am constantly amazed, both by my old friends, and the new ones that I have made on the other side of the world, by their goodwill. Even as they are suffering, they still have something to give me when I need them, and each other.

Eagerly, we cling together like life rafts, keeping each other afloat and kicking the sharks away. Martinis in hand, we tearfully vent to each other through texts, emails, Facebook online chat and phone calls, (and in person when we are near), all the while giving each other small gifts and tokens of our appreciation through kind gifts, big and small, material and emotional.

Some of our problems are financial, some emotional, but they all bring us down and threaten our sanity. But we face them, together. We don’t ignore them or sweep them under the rug. We don’t dismiss each other’s feelings with some light cliché and a dismissive flick of the wrist. We don’t put band-aids on them because we know that band-aids have a tendency to fall off after a while and some wounds never heal.

Instead we do something about our situations. And we do it with the support of each other and without judging. No one cares whose fault it is or how you got to this place of discontent and struggle. We all recognize with wise knowledge that there are two sides to every story and then there is almost always something in between that is usually the truth. We just want to know how we can help each other rise above it and move forward.

And no matter how many martinis, Skype conference calls or Eat Pray Love books it takes, we always have something to give each other. And that is worth all the homes, money and loves we have lost.