28/08/19 15:25
“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.”
This quote by Fr. Henri Nouwen speaks about how we all sometimes need to refrain from our desire to fix other people’s problems when they come to us. I know I have been guilty of this many times in my life. Trying to come up with a solution to take aways someone else’s pain is almost innate. We don’t like to see other people suffering and when we do, it brings about certain level of uncomfortableness with us.
So the solution is simply to be present and that is a lesson for all of us. When someone comes to us we need to be that person who means most to them and with that comes the notion that we must simply be silent and be present.