BE WITH ME

After a weekend of ulitmate joy and pain, I am beginning to see what real relationship looks like.
It's crazy to me that someone would feel the need to spend large amounts of money on lighting, technology, music, furniture, whatever really, in order to gain the approval of many. Let me tell you, I've learned that all it takes is a minimum of 2 bodies, a place to sit (even a dirty floor) and the willingness to BE WITH the person or people around you.
I think in our fast-paced world, we often feel the need for entertainment, the need to prove that what you have is worth more than the next person they might walk by. In a world that is consistently sending messages to us through all different kinds of senses and tactics, I begin to question if that is how we should really be seeing our relationships, and further, our future relationships?
You see, when I think about the times that have impacted me the most, it is not when bright lights were flashing around on a stage, it is not about hearing someone speak into a microphone, it is certainly not about watching TV or a movie. Instead, the moments, the precious precious moments that I treasure, are the times when simplicity was at its best. Sitting on the floor with two best friends discussing our lives and the struggles we all have till 2AM. Cuddling on a couple mattresses, surrounded by blankets and the arms of people who love me. It is about group hugs outside my car late at night, looking up and seeing the stars, and then looking down and seeing the stars personified. Yes, these are the times in life that mean the absolute most to me and will remain as vivid and impressionable memories forever.
People around us do not desire our money, our materials, possessions, or treasures, they do not desire entertainment, or the next best video game (sorry I had to throw that in). In reality, people desire other people. It is how we were made to live, it is how our hearts were formed. We live in a lonely lonely world that is full of the need to be captivated by the 'WOW' factor. My bad, we do not NEED to be captivated by it, on the contrary, we NEED to be captivated by the beauty that surrounds us in people.
This weekend, was rough.
I hate change, I hate saying goodbye, and I hate missing people. All of which took place. Friday, I spent the night with 5 close friends, it was our last night together and in their house, we like to call ourselves The Ovaries. It was a great night, how could it not be great?? We laughed, we cried, we sang, we played cards, we drank red wine, and we played STEAM ROLLER! It truly was one of the best nights of my life. I thought about it later, what made it so great?? We spent the ENTIRE night in one little room, filled with a couple mattresses and blankets. Likewise, on Saturday night, a couple of my small group girls came over to sleepover. We sat in my basement all night, on one air mattress (there were 5 of us), candy, and some quality cuddling. One last example, yesterday, after lunch with the family we went down by the lake, I spent a couple minutes sitting and watching some of the fam skip stones in the water. It was overwhelming how content and happy everyone was, and I was.
It was a weekend of simply being WITH the people that I love. How simple eh?! Why do we choose to make it so complicated, I will never know. But I'm sooo thankful for the constant reminders of what it means to love someone, what it means to be WOWed by someONE. We need to WOW people with our love, grace, and willingness to BE WITH them.
I've just been going on and on, but I guess I've just really seen the need to be present with the people you are surrounded by. Not wishing for anything or anyone else, but who you are with.
It can be scary, it is not only setting yourself up for potential rejection, but it's also allowing vulnerability to take place, with the hope that the person longs to be with you too. Be WOWed by the people surrounding you, by their hearts, by their captivating beauty. I'm not going to go into the speech about living simply, but in reality, I think the longing of our heart to be present with people and to belong to people, is evidence of our longing to simply be us, nothing holding us, nothing clinging to us, but just to sit on a dirty floor and share lives, to lie in a bed of cuddling and reminice over memories while laughing and crying, to spend time with people who are inspirational, doing nothing but laughing and eating candy, we experience love in raw form. Love the way it was meant to be.