I've heard people say, "It is so easy to offer reassurance when you are not the one with the problem."
I was thinking about this today. Is it really easy to offer reassurance? I'm not so sure. If the intention is to really help someone suffering, it is quite hard to reassure. The over riding fear is that your words can be misunderstood, your timing can be off and you may end up making the person feel worse.
It may sound simplistic, but as people we usually face similar problems and life situations. What is different is each one of us - shaped individually by birth, experience, and circumstance. How we react follows from that. Sensitivity to this difference is lacking today.
Is it better then to stand on the sidelines for fear of rejection, or to instinctively reach out? I prefer the latter. I could (barely) survive having my love and concern thrown back at my face. If that happened I would suffer greatly... for a few days or weeks perhaps. But I couldn't walk away from someone in pain. It would haunt me and make life difficult.
I suppose it depends on each person. As I told someone today, if some suffering is what I get for staying true to who I am, and upholding my belief in goodness and fair play, so be it. I will emerge from this, not necessarily stronger, but not weakened either to alter who or what I am.
With love..and more love...that's all there is in the end.
I was thinking about this today. Is it really easy to offer reassurance? I'm not so sure. If the intention is to really help someone suffering, it is quite hard to reassure. The over riding fear is that your words can be misunderstood, your timing can be off and you may end up making the person feel worse.
It may sound simplistic, but as people we usually face similar problems and life situations. What is different is each one of us - shaped individually by birth, experience, and circumstance. How we react follows from that. Sensitivity to this difference is lacking today.
Is it better then to stand on the sidelines for fear of rejection, or to instinctively reach out? I prefer the latter. I could (barely) survive having my love and concern thrown back at my face. If that happened I would suffer greatly... for a few days or weeks perhaps. But I couldn't walk away from someone in pain. It would haunt me and make life difficult.
I suppose it depends on each person. As I told someone today, if some suffering is what I get for staying true to who I am, and upholding my belief in goodness and fair play, so be it. I will emerge from this, not necessarily stronger, but not weakened either to alter who or what I am.
With love..and more love...that's all there is in the end.
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