Yesterday I laughed and laughed and my stomach hurts today.

I am so thankful for the people God has put in my life who carry me when I am too sad or too weak to carry myself.

These types of friends are brave and they dance and they listen and they learn and they are just so beautiful.

They are generous with their time and they are generous with their compassion.

They make me want to be better—to love better, to give them tight hugs and kisses on the cheek and love notes and adventures.

They make me want to learn how to open my hand and reach for theirs and pick up their burdens and lift up their joys and receive good things, like the presents of being known well and being stood by.

It’s nice. Nicer than I can adequately describe and I am so so thankful.

They remind me of some friends I once heard of, who lowered their friend through a hole in a roof so that he could land in a spot where he could find healing and love from Jesus (See Mark 2:1-12 and Luke 5:17-26).

How lovely it is to remember that God loves us so much that He insists that the love He has for us bubble up out of His heart and into ours. He lets us share in His love and to know His love through each other.

I’m so grateful for the mysterious healing power of joy, and the particular joy that is known through friendship.

I’m so grateful that God gave us each other, to draw us closer to Him, and to restore our hope when our courage fails us.

HAYLEY SWAN believes the answer to tree swings and dance parties is always yes. She seeks to be a professional never-giver-upper, a forever learner, and an encourager of the discouraged. If someone was hiring for the position of Sugar Plum Fairy, she would apply. For now, she seeks to live a life that is marked by love and integrity and to find the sacred in the ordinary.