winter friends

"winter friends are friends who can be together in the quiet.  friends who allow you to BE, and don't demand that you DO.  there is no performance to the act of being winter friends, you simply are.  winter friends weather the fallow periods of friendship, they listen, even if all you have to communicate is silence.  they are rooted, weathered.  even just the knowledge that they are there can help to ground you...

...a winter friend knows your greys, your perennial complaints, vain woes, and does not paper over your doldrums.  they know your laments and stand beside them--a contrast and a reprieve.  they put tea into cold hands and believe we're good even when our thoughts are harsh like a scraping storm or hard like frozen ground.  they are dependable, here again and here again...

...a companionable candle when days are short.  a winter friend is a friendship you can sink into.  it is reliable and makes you feel tethered."--anna brones