Always there
There’s a neat little thing people sometimes say to bring comfort: ‘I’m always there for you’! How does it ring true to your own life experience? Growing up, we want to know that someone is with us and that we’re not alone. It is only natural for a child to find the dark frightening, to be anxious on the first day at school or if becoming separated from a parent’s reassuring hand in a crowded street. To be lost and alone is to feel helpless and hopeless. When the skies are dark and menacing, there is an inbuilt need to know that someone is truly near to bring help and a comforting presence. The childhood comforts of a dummy to suck or a teddy to cuddle may pacify a toddler but are of no use as adulthood approaches. Child or adult, the need to have someone always there remains despite the small comfort of substitutes, denial or just putting on a ‘brave face’.
- ‘Loneliness is my least favourite thing about life. The thing that I'm most worried about is just being alone without anybody to care for or someone who will care for me’ – Anne Hathaway