Do you wander around for a while?  Ok, maybe a looooong long while?  Or do you stop and ask for directions?  Today, I stopped.  At Starbucks.   And friends helped me find my way….again.  And I learned something else.  It’s this.  Can you really ever BE lost, if people who care about you are nearby??  I think N.O.T!

So you can never really be lost, if you have friends who love you.  That’s the message.  But you have to be super hero enough…..to ask for help.   To let people in.  That’s the best secret weapon of all.  Right there…in that last sentence fragment!

You know how they always ask the question….”if you could have 1 super power — which would you choose??”    The question that starts the long debate between Invisibility?  The Lasso of Truth?  Super Speed?  and all the rest.  Well….maybe, just maaaayyyybe,,,,the best super power of all….is vulnerability.  Yea, vulnerability.  Allowing yourself to B.E. yourself.  All 220 pounds.  All muscles, jiggle, makeup and humor.  Just let yourself B.E.  That’s kind of what happened this morning….over 4 hot cups of Starbucks coffee.

Carmen, Kim, Brian and Diane.  Letting it all hang out, and finding 3 other compatriots ready, willing and able to catch you before you fall.  Advice, truth, compassion and honestly.  Yea, sometimes the brutal variety — but it was honestly none-the-less.  WW meetings have a time, place and purpose, but something about the intimacy of 4 friends —- vulnerable and nervous —- speaking their truths, laying their worst habits on the table — and finding nods of understanding, pats on the shoulder of compassion and laughs of mutual “getting it”.  Yea — vulnerability IS the greatest super power.  For real.

Because inside the risk of being vulnerable – comes the gift of connection.  Connecting with 3 other friends, strangers, and combinations of the two — connections built on the singular thing that we each need in our own unique way.  The need to “not be alone”.  Hey — the journey is long, and sometimes dark.  The road has pebbles, and even some big rocks.  The weather gets cloudy, and bursts of rain are inevitable.  What makes it all possible — as we carry our own load down the road the lays itself in front of us….is the knowing….that when we get tired….we can rest upon one another.  When we get lost, someone else brough their map.  When we run out of strength, someone else had their Power Foods and have strength for us.  And when we get sad, another pair of arms are there to hold us tight.

Inside the super power of vulnerability….lives the potential for connection.

Friendship — insert Tab A into Slot B — and you can never get lost.

Thanks for coffee guys….loved every sip!

Ciao for now….Diane