Someone else's experience

When I was nineteen, I invited some of my friends from high school over.

Soon enough, we began talking politics. We were, after all, newly minted college students. Only recently did any of us really read a newspaper.

At the time (over 20 years ago), gay marriage was still illegal. We were all discussing it until one friend said “but none of us are gay. Why are we even talking about this?”

It was a thought that, still in our adolescence, was worth thinking about at the time.

Years later, I came across this quote from a parenting podcast called Zen Parenting Radio:

“Can we hold space for someone else’s experience?”

It occurs to me now that this may be the entire basis of a healthy relationship. I hold just enough space for your experiences if you hold just enough for mine.