Honor of Solidarity

“Let us choose one another as companions!
Let us sit at each other’s feet!
Inwardly we have many harmonies — think not
That we are only what we see.”

― Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love

The highest honor of companionship isn’t getting invited to “that party” or going out on a girl’s weekend. It’s not clinking champagne glasses at some fancy brunches or wearing matching shirts on a beach holiday. That’s all nice, fun, good, and special, but actually is that what it’s all about?

Not at all!

The real honor is in being invited to someone’s REAL.

It’s getting an invitation into the nitty-gritty, the not-so-pretty, the hard, the vulnerable, the weird and unpolished stuff.

It’s being welcomed into a home where the sink is full of dishes and the laundry is covering the couch.

It’s entering the places of heartache and pain. It’s like being invited to the hospital room when your friend is still in her mesh underwear from birth.

It’s sitting cross-legged in old sweats on the floor and laughing till you cry. It’s carrying around secrets that you’ve been trusted to keep.

It’s listening and hearing. It’s holding space for each other. It’s answering phone calls just to talk something through.

The highest honor of solidarity isn’t found in beautifully planned events or brightly filtered photos. It’s in unfiltered photos of laughing so hard and in holding each other while you ugly cry.

It’s messy, dingy, and real.

If you’ve been invited into even one person’s REAL, you are blessed.