The thing about Michael is I can lean on him. Like … lean. It’s a rare thing. Many people can’t take it when you lean on them. They expect something in return. Or in the back of their minds, they wonder nervously: “What does she want from me?? What does she really want from me?” Not him. I don’t want anything but a little help with Ye Olde load. And he helps.
His casual, yet firm voice from the other room, “Baby, you’ve got to get a thick skin. The guy’s an asshole.”
And poof. The freakout disappears. The skin thickens. I realize the asshole-ness of the asshole, and I move on. Immediately. This is what a partner can do. Perspective. Not do the work for me, but to help.
And so I lean. Sometimes it’s invisible, too. Like – I lean on him without him even knowing about it. Very very sneaky. I go to him in my mind when I’m troubled, and try to imagine what he’d say about it. How he’d talk me out of it, or talk me through it. Or maybe he does know I do this. He was always kinda cool like that.
Our relations with others are so tricky, like newbies in the chemistry lab we so often just create smoke and perhaps small explosions. But when it works, it’s so good that good doesn’t cover it. And those with whom it just works are so precious and rare, we must cherish them. I hear cherishing going on in your post today.
Cherish is a good good word.
Yes. :)
i have someone like that… ^_-