Hey Love: The Older I get the more I Crave People Who Enjoy Me

The older I get, the more I crave the kind of people who make it obvious they enjoy me.

Not tolerate.

Not endure.

Not secretly critique.

Enjoy.

The ones who will sit with me in the dark and listen —

but won’t chain me to it.

The ones who let me move on when I’m ready,

without dragging yesterday back into today.

The ones whose love doesn’t waver

when I’m loud, disorganized, emotional, radiant, messy, healing, thriving.

That kind of steadiness was new to me.

I didn’t grow up with a comfort zone of humans

where I could love myself out loud

without someone asking if that was “too much”

or “a little conceited”

or “who do you think you are?”

Those weren’t just thoughts.

They were words that shaped a reality —

one where I believed everyone must be thinking that about me.

And then I met these women.

We call ourselves the misfits —

the cutest name for what we are.

Different races.

Different classes.

Different backgrounds.

But when we sit together,

none of that matters.

We don’t see each other’s past.

We see the light of who we are right now.

We meet each other exactly where we stand.

No fixing.

No judging.

No reshaping.

Just listening.

Sometimes that’s all we need.

Not advice.

Not solutions.

Just presence.

Why did we stop treating friendships like sacred relationships?

They require nurturing.

Time.

Listening.

Honesty.

Gentleness.

The only difference is romance.

Everything else — the tending, the care, the showing up —

is the same.

I want friendships where we can say: “I like you. You like me. Let’s do this honestly.”

The kind where someone shows up to your event with food

because they once caught you crying in a barn

and decided you were worth protecting.

The kind where love doesn’t disappear

when you’re inconvenient.

Maybe what we need

isn’t more networking.

Or more proximity.

Maybe we need more brave, decent humans

who can say: I enjoy you.

And mean it.

And who are willing to keep the ones who nourish them,

release the ones who don’t,

and nurture what is real.