ENCOURAGE: 31 days of 5-minute free writes

The dog is quiet right now, so that means he’s other chilling out somewhere or eating another power cord. Hopefully, he can only do so much damage in five minutes.

I love this prompt, because I love encouraging others.

To take a little bit of an introspective turn, though, I think often about the fine line between being encouraging in a way that is relaxed and comes from a place of mutual enthusiasm, and being encouraging in a heavy-handed or needy way.

My husband used to coach softball. There was a man who was connected to the team, who wasn’t a player on the team but wanted to be supportive. I well remember one time when he had everyone over for a barbecue. He had clearly spent good money on steaks and all the fixings to show his support. It was lovely, of course, but … I sometimes feel like that guy, buying the steaks and perhaps doing more than what would be logical.

Somewhat related, I also think often of what a professor said when I was in graduate school (for a counseling degree). He referred to a book about therapy called “The Purchase of Friendship” — it came up as he talked about clients’ expectations when they pay for therapy.

It all gets muddied in our social media world too, I think. Our willingness to share someone’s cause, etc., is a commodity at times.

I know that sounds very crass, perhaps, but social media has changed everything about the way we encourage each other.