Last week we asked you the following question:
“Where are the places in your life where you can show up exactly as you are and be embraced? What makes that possible?”
Here are the answers we received:
- “A friend is not a fella who is taken in by sham, a friend is one who knows your faults and doesn’t give a damn.❤”
- At home with my family & with friends. Valuing honesty, authenticity, & mutual respect.
- At home with Tim. He’s very calm and accepting.
- At home, at Foothills, at my sister’s house.
- Being with a group of friends.
- Church. My daughter’s. They are places I can be myself and know that I am loved unconditionally”Home
- Facebook lol, those who don’t embrace me can unfriend. Jk, (not really) but yes thankful for all the loving friends and family.
- Family in its broadest sense / “definition”.
- Family, good friends.
- Foothills UU. Foothills is an accepting community for all including GLBTQ individuals.
- Home.
- Home because home is where I deeply feel unconditional love and acceptance.
- Home, loving daughter and husband. They know me well. Doesn’t mean it is always easy:)
- Home…consistent love.
- I’m fortunate because I feel this way about my immediate family at home and in my work team.
- My family & my best friend. Our relationship & unconditional love for each other make that possible.
- My nuclear family (the one I grew up in), Conjunction Junction ‘young adult’ group that was formed in 1994; also writing in my journal to connect my past, present and future selves with each other 🙂
- Only with my dogs can I truly be myself. They don’t judge and I don’t have to be anything but me. Everywhere else I show up in a role of some sort. Man, bread winner, employee, father, husband, tall guy. You get the picture.
- Only with very close friends and family.
- Our home. Also, When I gather with my sisters no matter where that is. It used to be at our childhood home.
- Our Gather Group Meeting virtual or real.
- Love makes this possible.
- Phone calls to long time friends and relations.
- Pretty much everywhere at Foothills but especially in my small groups (sisterhood, wellspring, community). With my family and friends. I guess most everywhere; at this age I’m not interested in pretense or hiding 😊
- What makes it possible? I have a kind therapist who is working pro bono.
- There are very few places I feel unconditional acceptance. It’s probably my own insecurity. Foothills Unitarian Church.
- When amongst members of my family…primarily my sisters. My husband and daughter & son, as well. They love me no matter how I look and I love them.
- With family.
- With my best friend, my family, and my wellspring group! Care, openness, patience, commitment.
- With my dogs they love me just as I am. And my Husband as well so if I am having a shitty day they love and accept me as I am
- With my family and close friends. Made possible by unconditional love and respect.
- With my family, at work, and at church. I am lucky!
- With my friends and my middle child. They make it easy to be myself.
- With my neighbors Al and Abigale and their kids– also in group texts/Zoom meetings with a circle of 5 friends from TX days. All made possible by open loving hearts and no judgment if your shirt still has mustard on it….