A friend in the forest can help provide you a way out, or at least offer encouragement as you struggle to find your way out of it. The forest? The forest can be anything that has you in a tailspin.
After the death of my husband, I had to learn to focus my energy on cultivating relationships that helped me move out of the forest, meet basic life goals, and move forward. They were there to help me get out of the forest where you get unceremoniously dumped in your grief.
You would think that everyone would do that, right?
Wrong. The thing is, there groups of people who drug me back to the forest with every single encounter! It didn't happen maliciously or intentionally, but they focused on the heartbreak, the devastation, and hopelessness. You see, for that group I was their worst nightmare made flesh, and they were responding from that place of fear. They wanted me to build a house and make the forest my home.
I want to be the things that I loved the most in my husband.
I want my children to embody those things too.
The right friends be there for us, but operate from a position of support and encouragement. They want us to find our way out of the forest and may even supply some of the tools we need to find our way back to the world of the living.
To my daughters (and all of us):
Do you want a friend who will help you get out of the forest or who will keep you there?
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