Just say it

Walking like a one man army
Fighting with the shadows in your
head
Living out the same old moment
Knowing you'd be better off
instead
If you could only
Say what you need to say

-John Mayer

I often wonder how much better off we would be if we would just say what we need to say rather than keeping it all inside and never telling others how we feel and what they mean to us. So many friendships seem to drift away, that best, most dearest friend that we couldn't live without as children and teens, has become a picture on facebook and an occasional quote. The family member who you grew up with, who led you through some tough and confusing times, an occasional e-mail aquaintance. I think we all have them, we may wonder what we've done to push them so far away and we may wonder how to get back to knowing and understanding them on the level we used to. We might be surprised to learn that they weren't the people we thought they were before. That friend who we've talked to for hours may one day tell you something so out of character you begin to question just what exactly you really know about them, is this really the person you thought it was, or someone entirely different. Is that friend suffering some internal crisis over a loss that all of us eventually go through and none of us want to see? How do you start to tell a friend that your respect for them has fallen off, or that you think they are messing up their life in an enormous way? I wish all of us, myself included, could just say what we need to say and work on healing rather than carrying our pain with us until we are able to dump it upon a counselor or other mental health professional, or barring that just implode.

Tell those who are important to you just what they are to you, just what they mean, love without fear of being hurt.