"Maybe you can be enlightened and broken too. Sometimes I feel like I understand so much, that I can be a lot of help to people. Other times my mind is blank and there is nothing in my mind or heart to say but “I’m so sorry.” I want to reach out but my hand is lying in my lap, still in a shape of warding off demons of fear and illness, financial terrors and loss, and I can’t do anything with it.
The broken Buddha says he knows how I feel. Our hearts beat together for a time, and we are both strengthened."In my years as a therapist, I remember so many moments like that. Having heard a story of terrible loss, I would sit, uncertain what to say, frightened of saying the wrong thing and angry at myself for not having an answer that could make all of the problems go away. It is at moments like that when we need to lean towards ourselves with compassion.
I have since learnt that, often, what people in pain really value, is a listener who is prepared to let them feel their pain and doesn't try to make it go away.
