t i can set you free to walk beside me in joy and in sadness. i will share your tears but i will not ask you not to cry. i will respond to your needs. i will care and comfort you, but i will not hold you up when you can walk alone. i will stand ready to be with you in your grief and loneliness but i will not take it away from you. i will strive to listen to your meaning as well as your word, but i shall not always agree. sometimes i will be angry and when i am, i will try to tell you openly so that i need not hate our differences or feel estranged. i can not always be with you or hear what you say for there are times when i must listen to myself and care for myself, and when that happens i will be as honest with you as i can be."　i am learning to say this, whether it be in words or in my way of being with others and myself, to those i love and for whom i care. and this i call loving with an open hand.

　　i cannot always keep my hands off the cocoon, but i am getting better at it!