George and John

It's an intriguing thing to be thought of as safe.

Tonight I was talking to a good friend of mine on Facebook chat (with which I have a love-hate relationship) and he made some off the wall comment; not unusual for him. He's one of those individuals that will say most anything just to get a rise out of you. I rarely ever know when he's in earnest and usually he knows to clarify with a " Just kidding!"

Well anyways. We'll call him "George." Here's our dialogue:

George: "Nichole, when I look at your ridiculous little smiling face, I feel like a child."

Nichole: "Ooo. That's so very poetic. What does that mean?"

George: "It means that you make me feel like, if anything were to ever happen to me, you would swoop down with your Jesus-power and save me."

They were both very sweet things for him to say and oddly enough I've heard them before from "John," although he used the words 'safe' and ' comfort,' not but two months prior. "John" will have to be discussed at a later time.

What kind of truths do these coincidental agreeances infer? I began to wonder:

Do I physically look safe? More specifically, does my appearance bear to mind the ability to swim someone ashore or rescue kittens out of a burning building? Well no, I thought, of course not. I just wrote about my diminutiveness in a prior post so I certainly cannot physically appear to be the bearer of safety. I can hardly lift my suitcase onto the scale at the airport.

Perhaps it is due to my mad survivor skills and mastery of the martial arts! Okay, I lie. I don't have mad skills or any skills really. All I know about surviving is what I have ascertained from my grade school readings of Hatchet. Although, I'm pretty good with a spatula...

So then, what is it?

All I know is feeling safe is to be comforted, to feel impervious to danger, a " all is right in the world" kind of impression. The way I feel when I'm hugging my dad. He's safe because I can trust him.

My hope is these two men believe I am safe, because they feel they can trust me, because they know they are loved.

If anything, it's an intriguing thought.