May 27, 2025
I’ve been walking through a long season of hard, ending with a risky and challenging surgery. I wanted to offer up ways people have supporting me as ideas, so that we all can collectively do this for one another. I’m calling this WHEN LIFE GETS HARD, LOVE SHOW UP. Here’s Day #1.
I was slumped on the sofa in our Airbnb, hundreds of miles from home, my body aching and spirit worn thin. It was day six post-surgery, and I was unraveling—physically exhausted, emotionally spent, and disoriented by a week that had thrown more curveballs than I could count.
Then came a knock at the door.
My husband, Erik, glanced over and said, “I think this is for you,” with a knowing sort of smile, already on his way to answer it. I couldn’t turn around—I was facing the window, stiff and sore, too tired to care.
Then, from behind me, chaos broke loose.
Familiar voices—shouting something absurd. “Dr. Salt? Dr. Pepper?” I couldn’t quite make it out. What??
And then, into my line of sight walked two of my best friends—my business partners, my soul sisters—dressed in full-blown doctor costumes, faking accents. I burst into laughter and tears at the same time, covering my eyes in disbelief.
“What are you doing here?” I repeated over and over, unable to compute their presence. “It’s Memorial Day weekend! You should be with your families!”
But they weren’t.
They were right there, standing in front of me, hundreds of miles from their homes, because that’s who they are. They are the kind of people who drop everything to show up—when it’s hard, when it’s messy, when it really, really matters.
Suffering strips us down. It exposes what hurts and what is most important. It reminds us just how little control we have—and how much we need one another. No one chooses these kinds of chapters. They arrive uninvited, unwelcome. But when someone steps into that pain with you, something shifts. The weight doesn’t vanish, but it lightens. The story doesn’t change, but somehow we are able to bear it differently.
People like that—friends like that—they don’t just visit. They transform the narrative.
They make sure you’re never alone in the dark. They carry flashlights, wear ridiculous costumes, and remind you—sometimes loudly and in character—that you are deeply loved.
These two women are rewriting this chapter of my story just by being in it.
For the rest of my life I will never forget the moment they did the most profound thing they could have: THEY SHOWED UP.
WHEN LIFE GETS HARD, LOVE SHOWS UP SERIES:
DAY #2- When we need other people to carry our hope
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