This is literally the most heart warming story I have read on Twitter so far.
I think this is exactly what friends should do, and I feel everyone deserves people like this.A barn rasing: a collective action of a community, in which a barn for one of the members is built or rebuilt collectively by members of the community.
because you cannot, you CANNOT, build a barn on your own, and without it, you will not be able to survive.
What a fuckin’ gem of a sentence. “What we did today was a barn rasin”
“Not all heroes…”, etc., etc. This is one way heroism looks.
When I finally told my friends I was dealing with chronic fatigue and having a hard time getting around, one of them organized a timetable. She tracked down everyone’s schedule and everyone committed to being on-call for at least a few hours a week in case I needed a ride somewhere or help with laundry etc.
She knows I’m really anxious about texting people and planning out logistics, so she just elbowed in and lifted that burden from me. On any given day, I could look at a chart and know exactly who was already willing and able to help. And it helped with the isolation, too - turns out, it’s nice to see friends even if it’s just for a 20-minute pharmacy run.
The fatigue improved eventually and I didn’t need that level of support anymore, but lord, what a blessing it was. And I would never have asked for it.
I have a hard time asking for help, trusting people who want to help, and even knowing what kind of help I need. But my friends even helped with those things. That was like… meta-help. They came up with a solution that wouldn’t have occurred to me as an option - because they knew me well enough to do that. And all I had to do was let my struggle be visible. I’m tearing up just remembering. I love them so much.