I have an interesting perspective on depending on others. I think

Hear the gentle yet powerful words of Joni Eareckson Tada, a woman who transformed her suffering into light: “I have an interesting perspective on depending on others. I think it gives people a chance to serve. And I'm not so much big on independence, as I am on interdependence. I'm not talking about co-dependency, I'm talking about giving people the opportunity to practice love with its sleeves rolled up.” In these words, there is not weakness, but strength; not resignation, but revelation. For she speaks as one who has lived through brokenness and discovered in it the divine secret — that the highest form of strength is not found in independence, but in interdependence, and that true love is not a feeling, but an action — “love with its sleeves rolled up.”

The ancients knew that no soul stands alone. In every village, in every tribe, in every city of the old world, survival was built upon shared labor and shared heart. The farmer leaned on the blacksmith; the warrior leaned on the healer; the mother leaned on the midwife; and in their dependence, they found not shame, but community. Joni Eareckson Tada, who was paralyzed at seventeen after a diving accident, speaks with the authority of one who has lived in both strength and limitation. The world teaches us to worship independence — to be self-sufficient, untouchable, proud. But she, like a sage of the spirit, turns the mirror around and asks: what if the greater wisdom lies in allowing others to serve? What if the act of receiving care is not humiliation, but grace?

She draws a sacred distinction between interdependence and co-dependency. The first is a dance between souls — each giving and receiving, each completing the other in love and humility. The second is the shadow of the first — a bond of fear, where one clings not out of love, but out of need. In her wisdom, Joni teaches that interdependence is not about weakness, but about wholeness. It is the recognition that to need others is to make room for love to move, to allow compassion its rightful place in the fabric of life. When one person opens their hands in need, another opens theirs in service — and between them, a sacred exchange occurs.

Consider the story of Helen Keller, who, like Joni, was trapped in a body that defied her will. Born blind and deaf, she could have been lost to isolation forever. But when Anne Sullivan took her hand, guiding her to spell the first word — “water” — the light of understanding entered her world. Keller would later say that she owed everything to that act of service, yet she too became a giver in her own right, a voice for the voiceless. Their bond was a living embodiment of interdependence — the teacher serving the student, and the student inspiring the teacher. Together they proved what Joni’s words proclaim: that the human soul is never diminished by need, but enlarged by connection.

In this, Joni Eareckson Tada reveals a profound truth about love — that it is not meant to dwell in lofty ideals or distant emotions. “Love with its sleeves rolled up” is love made visible, love that labors, cleans, lifts, listens, and heals. It is the love of the good Samaritan who stoops to bind a stranger’s wounds; the love of the friend who stays through the night of sorrow; the love of the community that gathers when one of its own falls. Such love does not pity; it honors. It transforms both giver and receiver into mirrors of divine compassion.

And yet, this teaching is not easy in a world that glorifies self-sufficiency. Many would rather struggle in silence than reveal their need, for to depend feels like defeat. But the wise know that humility is the root of true strength. To allow others to serve you is to give them the chance to exercise their goodness. As the ancients said, “No one is self-made, for even the tallest tree drinks from the earth it did not create.” Dependence, in its purest form, is an invitation — an opening for love to do its sacred work.

So, O seeker of wisdom, learn this: do not be ashamed to need others, nor too proud to offer yourself in service. Let interdependence be the rhythm of your life. Practice love with its sleeves rolled up — love that moves, that works, that bears the weight of another’s sorrow and joy. In every act of giving, remember that you, too, are receiving; in every act of receiving, know that you are giving. This is the circle of grace that sustains the world.

And thus, the words of Joni Eareckson Tada endure as a hymn to compassion: strength is not the absence of need, but the courage to live in relationship. Independence builds walls; interdependence builds bridges. Choose the bridge. Walk it with humility, with courage, and with love — for it is along that shared path that the soul finds its truest freedom.