I am like an old house, and my friends are the things inside. I stand strong and I have a toughly built foundation, but inside everything is falling apart. Yet, because I am still standing, they will not break completely. They will get fixed.

It is difficult to be the friend who is the fixer. You give the advice, you bring happiness when something goes wrong or you find a way to fix everyone's problems and get them to tomorrow. Sometimes, however, the fixer isn't enough to them; Sometimes it looks like if you've never been through it...you don't understand.

I am the house, and since it happens inside of me, I understand. I know what's going on, because I am watching everything and everyone wanting to be replaced, wanting to give up or wanting to be broken. Since the house is still standing, so are you. You will be fixed. When everyone around you is falling apart, you have to understand that things break and it is your job to help fix it, whether that's with a hug, a bottle of wine, a hike or just sharing silence. When everyone around you is hurting, you hurt too. You don't have to go through it to understand how they feel -- a friend shares your pain.

Just because the foundation of the old house doesn't fall completely, and the house is still standing, it doesn't mean that the house hasn't been damaged too. You might just not know, because the things inside the house don't see the outside of the house, they don't know how old it is or how damaged it is -- all they see is that it is still standing. Things happen, and I fix it.

Sometimes it's hard to be vocal about your problems when you're the one keeping everyone together. If the house falls, the stuff inside gets damaged in the rubble. The fixer, the house, the strong friend, has a lot of responsibility. However, that doesn't mean that it, we or I, don't understand your problems. I live out your problems with you -- because I am your friend, I am your safe place, I am your home.