Lately, there have been times when I have felt I did not have the strength, resilience, or resources to face the challenges ahead of me. Moments when I wondered how much longer I could keep going.
In the last seven days, two friends, unconnected and very dear to me, broke down and in pain and suffering, opening up and daring to be vulnerable to say that they felt they could no longer go on.
Something unexpected happened.
I found myself giving to them what I had felt I did not have. I listened, witnessed, acknowledged, encouraged, reassured, and sat by them in that pain and suffering. We felt it together, in our own way. We allowed that exhaustion and frustration to be.
And in that moment, a strange kind of alchemy took place.
By giving what I believed I lacked, I discovered that it was already within me. How else could I have offered strength if I did not possess it? How could I have shared hope if I had none?
Sometimes, when we feel we lack strength, hope, or courage, life places someone before us who needs exactly those things from us. In giving what we thought we did not possess, we discover it was within us all along.