Simply because we need it.

I guess I'm just gonna write about a word that has mattered much to me in the past couple of months. The word is "with". Really, with "with" I've had a love affair with that word for far more years than I can remember, but it's coming back in drove's lately.

I think it might just be one of the more powerful words of any language.

I was in therapy for a year shortly after I moved to North Carolina. I sat on the sofa five feet from my therapist in his chair, and it wasn't until he said, "I will do this with you" did I even recognize he was in the same room. Lots of my life was what I called island-living. Not the tropics, but in the way I operated. I was my own island, or at least I thought I was. I operated on a completely disfunctional set of of too many "I's". I will do it...I will handle it...I will take it...I will manage it...I will find it...I will, get it? I thought I had every reason to be this way. I am a first-born. I fight with perfectionism. I was a nuerotic-caregiver making sure all parties involved were fine, good, dandy. But me, as for fine, good, dandy, I wasn't. I was in need. And for my therapist to say, "I will do this with you" was incredible. He said "with" and it was like I didn't need to suck my gut in any more. His withness helped me be more honest. I didn't have to act like I didn't have problems/issues/needs. That probably took more courage for me to muster up than I even now realize. My best friend said to me when we would talk about our future husbands, I hope he is someone who can be strong for you, since you so often are strong for everybody else. So when Ess Gee came in and loved me and said he was willing to commit with me for life, I was bowled over. Another triumphant WITH. And I don't think it's any coincidence when God calls himself Emmanuel, literally "God with us", he really wants us to know "with" in that kind of way, too. The "with" that helps us be more honest, let our bellies out, shows us we are not islands and we are not alone.