Can you suffer ?

This is something that we all know,

yet most of us pretend to forget.

When someone is suffering and in pain,

and you cannot immediately relieve the pain,

they do not want your opinion.

They do not want a strategy,

a plan of action,

or a statistic.

They do not want an analysis,

a directive,

or a dictate.

All they want is genuine understanding,

someone else who is willing to feel the pain,

who can sit with the pain and just feel it also,

They don't want someone who is 

judgmental, 

superior, 

aloof, 

better, 

distant, 

removed, 

or safe.

They just want a companion in their suffering.

THAT is a friend and nothing less.

If you can't suffer with them, you are NOT a friend.

Sorry, that is life.

Unless you can share someone's suffering, 

you are not of any use to them, 

and you should probably just go away.

~

copyright(c)2014

William Schaeffer