We're vulnerable even when we're busy

I am so vulnerable. When I give you a gift.

When I write for you.

When I put my work into the world.

When I ask if you want to spend time with me.

What I open my mouth and say what I think.

Each of us is so vulnerable.

Hidden beneath our beauty and our strength and our accomplishments is so much hope and tenderness and child-like turning towards each other.

This season is full of our turning towards each other.

Of trying to be the person others want us to be.

So that we will be loved.

At bottom we want to be held.

Stroked, cared for, safe, and held.

The tenderness of actually being together is so unbearable we make it casual.

The tenderness of being together - we don’t want to feel this - and so we close down and make it irreverent or silly.

The rawness of being together is too much for us and we criticize. A criticized person will not try to come close again too quickly.

In everything we do let’s remember each other’s tender hearts.

It’s not easy to hold your tender heart beside mine.

To bear side by side rawness. Side by side hope.

I think we can do it. We can open towards it and try our damnedest.