Loss

I am a paid listener. I have heard all sorts of stories in my work settings for many years. Though some have touched me, mostly I have demonstrated a momentary professional empathy and then left them behind. I could not do this work otherwise. Recently several people I know have suffered sorrow and loss, and I feel that I have grieved a tiny bit with them. It makes me think how I have been emotionally removed from the sad stories I heard from my patients because I really didn't know them. When you see tragedy from closer to the inside, it is more real. Once when I was visiting a terminally ill home health patient, a family member told me, "We weren't put here to stay." True. Earthly life is temporary. Still, it is all we know. Despair can overcome hope for a while. Tragedy leaves a scar.