And whine and cry and feel sorry for yourself and elicit the care and concern and comfort of others. This was a hard lesson for me to learn. For years I kept it all to myself because that was the example I was taught. Don’t cry, don’t talk about it, just deal with it. Well, over the years that burden became too great for me to conceal and, quite honestly, I just didn’t want to anymore. So I started talking, to my friends, my acquaintances and to just about anyone who seemed interested in what I was going through and the more I talked and the more they heard and responded the better I began to feel and the more in tune with myself I became. I learned from those who listened to me and gave me feedback and encouragement that I wasn’t alone in what I was going through, many of them had also trod on that path and were grateful to me to know they weren’t the only ones either! We all have common experiences, common hurts, fears and joys and in the telling, in the whining, in the bitching and complaining comes empathy, sympathy and connection. In this new world of internet relationships we now have a venue almost completely dedicated to this concept, it’s called blogging. Want to share something joyous in your life, blog about it! Want to whine and complain about something or someone, blog about it! Want to rant and rave against the machine, blog about it! Want to share your sorrow, your pain and your hurt, blog about it, someone out there will hear you and respond, it almost never fails and in that exercise of expression you may just find you have more friends than you ever knew you had.