I’m tired. Frankly, I’m exhausted. And I hurt. Everywhere. My mind is in pain, and my body responds in kind, translating that emotional turmoil into physical suffering. I’d like nothing better right now than for somebody to take me in their arms and hold me and tell me that everything is going to be alright. And I already know that it’s going to be, but it’s one thing to know and quite another to have that knowledge reaffirmed by an outside source, especially when you’re in the throes of your own darkness, your own suffering.
I encourage everyone to hug those around you — those you love, those you care about, those who are in your life on a daily basis. Tell them you love them and care about them and you’re there for them, even when they know it, even when you know they know it. Because here’s the cold, hard truth — you never know who’s suffering and who’s suffering in silence. Someone can carry a smile on their face all day long, they can joke and play and poke fun, they can help shoulder another’s burden. But that doesn’t mean that they aren’t themselves hiding a pain you know nothing about.
And look for the loners around you, the people who don’t seem to have a tribe of their own, who keep to themselves and may seem off-putting in one way or another. Make friends with these people. Reach out to them if you can. Because far, far, FAR too often these are people who are suffering and don’t know how to reach out, who don’t have people they can rely on, who are muddling their way through life day by day the best they can. Often these people are hiding pain so deep they can’t even name it. And we tend to ignore them or overlook them, usually without even trying, and so they go on ignored and overlooked. And that needs to change.
We are all of us people, all of us broken in our own ways, and all of us need help to be picked up from time to time. Band together. Seek out your loved ones, but also seek out the lonely ones. Form new tribes. Support each other. Love each other. Care for and carry each other. We can’t make it through this life alone, and we were never meant to. God made us social creatures for a reason.
Love. Care. Support.
