Why do we keep our people close?

This week I was talking with someone I highly admire about stages of growth and what it means to gain more influence, impact, visibility and success.

He was telling me that even though he is building a life he wants by doing the thing he is specifically gifted at, the process is messy, it’s unpredictable and, the closer he gets to his goal- it’s lonely.

Tragedy:

Sometimes we find ourselves in situations, where, overnight, our lives simply crumble. We are totally blind sighted by a phone call announcing a disaster, diagnosis or a death. Where despite our greatest efforts to hold on, there is nothing left to do but let go.

Being in this place jolts us- whatever we knew our reality to be is now, simply, not.

But our friends are here. Or our families are here. Or we still have that one person there who gets it. Who gets us.

Who holds us. Who anchors us. Who we can- while being thrashed around in a sea of uncertainty- be tethered to.

So at least we are not lost.

Triumph:

Other times we find ourselves in situations, where years of tireless, committed work has finally paid off and we arrive in a new season of our lives. Our careers have jumped up to a new level. We have gained new platform of influence or impact. We have achieved a felt degree of “the life we always wanted”.

We get seen seen. We get rich rich. We get free free.

And here, too, even though our lives are seeped in newness and eager expectation- we still have our people. They hold us up. They have a way of keeping us from feeling alone or defeated or entitled.

Not just because they are our day-ones or because they knew us before we got this-and-that, or knew so-and-so, but because with them we can hold on to the reality we knew before all of that- a place we are now not able to access without them.

If you’ve lived long enough you know that nothing stays the same. The good seasons nor the bad. But, our people are the constant presence in both. When we struggle to keep ourselves, buried in unimaginable levels of agony or when we float in unparallel contentment, pleasure and freedom- our people are with us.

Journaling through change:

Life isn't about more people, it's about your people. How are you tending the relationships that could hold you in your reality?

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