“Curiosity requires stepping off your own porch. We cannot understand the weight of someone else's threshold until we are willing to sit quietly in their seat without defending our own.”
Examining the interpersonal threshold—unraveling self-protection, navigating difficult family or friendship dynamics, cultivating true presence, and learning where our boundaries begin.
“Whose 🪑 Seat have you had difficulty understanding lately?”
Notice the reflex to explain someone else's behavior before you have ever sat where they sit. Curiosity requires stepping off your own porch.
“My adult daughter. Every time she shares a struggle, I respond with advice. She finally told me: 'Dad, I don't need you to fix my problem, I just need to know you hear me.' I've been sitting in the fixer's chair for 24 years.”
“Sitting quietly beside someone's struggle takes far more courage than attempting to solve it.”
“A long-time friend who has taken a completely different political and cultural stance. It's so easy to dismiss him from afar, but when we had coffee last week, I realized how much fear was actually driving his reactions.”
“Maintaining adult friendships when life stages diverge — all of our college friends now have toddlers while we are navigating infertility. How do you stay connected across thresholds of grief and joy without feeling like an outsider in rooms you used to call home?”
