Best friends...

Best friends support you when you're down.

Best friends listen when you cry.

Best friends understand when things are hard and don't say "suck it up!"

Best friends feel our sorrow.

Best friends understand our pain.

And we do those things for them.

Do you agree?

My question to you, then, on this cold and rainy Arizona afternoon is why aren't we ever this kind to ourselves?

Why must we beat ourselves up and say "c'mon girl, be tough, no crying, quit having a pity party."

If one of our close friends was experiencing what we're sometimes going through we would be supportive and kind and make them tea and send them a card and we would help them until they felt better.
But we rarely do that for ourselves.

And I think that's sad.

I was talking this afternoon to a friend whose Mother just died two weeks ago, who suffers from chronic illness, whose grandson is a relapsed heroin addict with all the ugly stuff attached to it and she said to me...

"I am such a baby. All I do is cry. I hate that I am having a pity party...I am just a whiner."

And instead of answering that I said "wow, you think that's bad? I have a friend whose Mom just died, who suffers horribly from degenerative arthritis and whose grandson is a heroin addict."

And she said, seriously, "wow, that poor thing..." and then she paused.

And then she thought about it.

And then she yelled at me a little bit for tricking her.

But it made me think really hard about why we are so darned hard on ourselves.

My naturopath has a theory that the reason women statistically suffer from chronic illness at a higher rate then men is because we are always trying to tough it out.

She believes that if we just cried when we need to, took a day of self-pity when we need to, didn't always put ourselves down by thinking we are not tough enough and not strong enough that we would all be a lot healthier.

And I agree.

And for some reason I felt compelled to share that with you today.

Just something to think about on this rare, drizzly, gray Arizona afternoon.

And while you're thinking about it make sure you entered my double box-o-lemons giveaway two posts down!