Sorrow

When someone you love is aching, how do you help them through? Coping is something that can't be wrapped up in a bow or slipped into a card.

When my family hurts, I hurt. I joke for fear of crying. I try to be there for them. I try not be there too long. To give space.

My family is hurting. I haven't been there, in this place where they are now, I don't know what they need, what to say.

I know how I feel. Bewildered; my doe eyed naivete smashed, stomped on and handed back. I am sad, angry, numb.

I'm not in that place. I'm looking down at them trying to steady the ladder for their long climb back to "normalcy."

I can only imagine their sadness, their anger. Their strength and hope. For they are strong and hopeful people and in time I trust they will feel that in themselves again.