If you love them,

When she spoke about what happened, I felt obliged to listen though it breaks my heart every time. That is the burden that I have to bear.

My animal brain would rather avoid pain at all costs but to listen to her story and feel its pain was my duty and a way to unburden her a little. And that is despite the fact that there was nothing I could do other than to listen.

That’s what you do for people that you love. It’s the cross we take up voluntarily for those whom we love.

But I still ache in the knowledge of the inadequacy of my mere listening in alleviating the suffering. That, is also my cross and mine only.