Oh, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person: having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them out. Just as they are – chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then, with the breath of kindness, blow the rest away.

Dinah Maria (Murlock) Craik, 1826-1887

What does a person want?

I believe, as one of Jan Karon’s books is so aptly titled, we want to be somewhere safe with somebody good.

But what does that mean?

It means if you were to walk into anybody’s life at any moment, that person would be looking for a safe place to be with somebody good.

It’s something we all long for.

Some of us have found it with another person.

Many have found it with God, with His consolations.

Some are able to find it with both God’s consolations and those of a mate or dear friend.

I know I have.

The world is an unsafe place.

We know that.

It probably always has been.

But I think right now, in our culture, we’ve reverted back to the Wild West!

Which is why we value more than ever those safe-places and those who are good-hearted so very much!

You never quite know

what a year will bring –

from unexpected challenges

to unexpected blessings.

But the wonderful thing

about being somewhere safe with somebody good is

you always know

that, come what may,

you can count on each other

for support, for understanding,

and for unconditional love.

I have found that place.

Praise be, with both God & him.

hugs n’ blessings upon your own somewhere safe with somebody good.

“My Dearest Husband, As a child with parents who scarcely knew me, I remember distinctly what I yearned for – to be somewhere safe with somebody good. When I was just awakening to His life in me, I remember asking, Please, God, let me be somewhere safe with somebody good. Your goodness to me has been overwhelming. How tender you are, though I am often as tough as gristle. How patiently you have loved me since you made up your mind to love me always.

By His grace, I am safe at last. But to be safe with you is grace beyond measure. Thomas Traherne said, “We are as prone to love as the sun is to shine.” I was prone – as prone as one could possible be, I feel. But could I actually love? Not until I met you, Timothy, who is Love’s truest yeoman. For everything that you are to me and to many, for your kindness of spirit and unbounded generosity, I love and cherish you with all my being, and if God choose – please forgive me for borrowing this – I shall but love thee better after death. “

Cynthia Kavanaugh to her husband Timothy, Mitford Series- Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good