“…it is safe – total integrity….It takes less time than I thought and it’s more effective than I imagined.”

There are those times we are on the mountaintop and the current winds seem to blow favorably in our direction. The air is sweet and bliss abounds. How can we be so happy, have things going our way, and feel so favored? Oh yes, those are glorious times!  And then, the wind current changes and we fall in strife, worry and anxiety. We feel a severe absence of bliss. This is not a mountaintop experience. It is the valley. It is lonely, dark and the hopeless in the air is stifling. We look here and there for the friends that stood with us in our heyday. They are nowhere to be found. Clapton sings, ‘Nobody likes you when you’re down.’ We don’t need to hum the song because every cell in our body blades out this truth. Nobody likes you when you’re down, needing help, needing someone to listen and to help us process. This is what my beautiful friend Sheryl has done for me. First, she was there. Available.  Listening.  Not rushing me to finish my story so she could espouse her wisdom. That will most definitely come – the wisdom – but first she listens. And it is safe – total integrity. So I ramble, more like spew everything pent up in me. And she is there silently loving me enough to not leave a word unsaid. Get it all out. I do. And I’m exhausted. And then we process. It takes less time than I thought and it’s more effective than I imagined. I leave lighter, free, cleansed and remembering the who, what and why of me. I leave the valley and journey toward the mountaintop again – oh, I’m not fooled. I will be in the valley again just next time it will be with different stuff and the experience will free me up once again to journey upwards again. Each time I cycle thru this passage I am a little less lonely and the valley not as cold while the bliss of the mountaintop waxes more blissful, more fragrant and more colorful. The wind currents still blow but peace resides and this is life. And this is what Sheryl does. She helps me ride the wind.