Mindful Presence and Vulnerability

This one was a birthday tribute for a friend.

I'm grateful for the presence of several people in my life
who are able to offer their mindful presence to me.

I need to work on my own ability
to be present to those closest to me, my family.

It's not always an easy thing to do, for family or friends. We get distracted.

And sometimes, presence is the only thing
we can offer in the face of pain and/or problems 

that are not easily solved
(or may not ever be solved, really). 

It takes a courageous person to sit with someone in that kind of situation 

and not panic 

when it is clear 

there is nothing one can do to improve the situation or take away the pain.

This one is just another good quote.

I've found this to be true.

But hard. 

Being vulnerable is risky.

The trick is in finding the "safe people."

In other news:

I'm heading off this morning to visit with a few friends from my younger days. We are going to have an adult slumber party and catch up on our lives from the last, um, nearly forty years. Good grief, how can it be that we have been adults for so long?

I've lost 20.2 pounds. Last night I walked four miles and I needed every single step of that walk! I'd had a rough day and it was wonderful how walking cleared my head and calmed me down.