Who Are Your People?

25 of 45 Moments of Wonder

Who are your people? Who are the people who you turn to when you need encouragement? Who are the ones you know you can count on in your time of need? Who are the people who are by your side when you most need someone? Who are the ones who make you better when you are with them?

I have had the great and humbling privilege of seeing who my people are as I went through this surgery this week. When I needed them the most, people just showed up and supported my family in very practical ways.

People showed up to take care of my children, making sure they were safe and feeling less scared. People helped them to understand that cancer is a scary word but that there are great doctors helping to get rid of it.

People showed up to stay at my home, taking care of my dogs and my cat so I wouldn’t have to kennel them.

People sent texts and emails the morning of my surgery, encouraging me and making sure I knew I was not alone. People continue to check in to see how I am managing. I receive phone calls and text messages every day. I appreciate every one of them.

People showed up offering everything from dog-sitting to food and even offering to come to Toronto to sit with me if I needed it. Fortunately, I had a person who showed up to do that too.

I love this quote from Michelle Obama. “Choose people who lift you up.” Those are your people. Our people are the ones who know that by lifting us, they rise themselves. Our people are the ones who know you are in the valley and they walk with you for a while when you are there. We can count on our people. We can trust our people. We know our people will choose us and will hold us to account when we go off course. We know that being with our people makes us want to be better people.

Our people are the ones we can talk to about the real stuff…not just the fluffy stuff. We can feel safe in the presence of our people when we need to have tough conversations or to ask for advice on how to face our most challenging moments.

So, we need to be very careful about who we count as our people. Some people may seem to be our people but their motive really is to take us down. Sometimes the people we thought were our people were just acting that way or could only be one of our people for a short time. Love those people too. They need people to lift them up and care for them too.

Are you someone’s people? Take that seriously. Lift others up. Be there and show up for them. Your small acts of kindness and encouragement may be exactly what they need in their time of need. It is rare that we need the big things. Maybe just a hug or a reassuring “you can do this” is all our people need. Maybe they need us to choose them when they are feeling most alone. Whatever it is, let’s show up for one another. Let’s be each other’s people. We never know when we might need someone to be there for us.