Sinking the friend ship.

I recently came upon Gwenyth Paltrow's website Goop.com. In the Be section she has a newsletter on "Friendship Divorce". I have been reevaluating some of my own friendship's since the first of the year. It was one of my resolutions to "trim the fat" from my life. Although I was always under the impression that you needed to sever any unhealthy or unsatisfying relationship with swiftness and minimal bloodshed.

Reading the entries by 3 professional... bloggers, I suppose. I came upon the idea that friendships don't necessarily need to end with Katrina-like devastation. I used to wreak havoc and blame, point fingers and aggressively destroy any bridge to an acquaintance with the person I felt needed to be ousted from my life. Which, I must confess made gatherings with mutual friends next to impossible if not down-right agonizing.

So, here I am in the midst of a list of life choices. I am learning that the choices are not necessarily the same as I used to think they were. A relationship doesn't need to end in a painful fashion, hell- it doesn't even need to end. It just loses some of the depth. It doesn't need to be all or nothing. It can be an occasional cup of coffee, or just a short catch up phone call or email.

I used to believe that a relationship that wasn't as deep as an ocean was a waste of time. Forgetting that most oceans have secret caves with mysterious animals and riptides that can drown the strongest swimmer. That relationship, those of the oceanic variety, need to be with someone you put a lot of life and devotion into. Not everyone deserves that kind of attention. Some people you just want to go see the new Iron Man movie with.

Here's the link to the article on GOOP.com

http://goop.com/newsletter/71/en/

Sexual Assault Awareness Month

Sexual Assault Awareness Month is almost over. For me the month will culminate with the Walk A Mile In Her Shoes that I will be participating in on May 1st.

The existance of a men's march that identifies rape as a men's issue is exciting. I feel that it is important that the world identifies rape as a men's issue as well as a women's issue.

Sexual assault is a topic that makes people cringe, yet it is utilized as a bullet point for arguments ranging from abortion access to the influence of television and video games on the youth. As a survivor and an advocate, I hope that our society will change their minds about how we can together create a world in which everyone is safe.

www.walkamileinhershoes.org/index.html



http://www.joyfulheartfoundation.org/

copyright 2010 Michelle Cahill