We Struggle To Be Human

last week was a very busy week, and i never found time to sit down and write a blog post.  this week is a little less hectic.  today i want to write about anxiety, the sort of anxiety that we call "anxiety attacks."  i've never experienced one of these, but i have a close friend who experienced two recently, and i felt helpless in the face of her distress.  i tried to comfort her, speaking to her of the need to confront the situations which brought on her discomfort.  my words were of little help, but she held herself together until the anxiety passed after several hours.

as i thought about her experience, i recalled others i know well who also experience this intense anxiety.  one is another friend who lives far away, the others are relatives.  all of these take medication which seems to diminish the intensity of their anxiety.  the friend who brought this to mind refuses to take anything to ease her fears because she has these attacks so rarely.  she is afraid that ,if she uses medicine for relief, she will become dependent on it and the attacks will become more frequent.  that seems to be the case of those others i mentioned, or perhaps their attacks are so frequent that, without medicine, they would not be able to function in their daily lives.

it is hard for me to understand this deep trauma, never having experienced it.  the feeling of helplessness while another is suffering is difficult.  i wish that i could find words that would ease my friend's pain, but this seems to be something which she must deal with on her own.  i am hopeful that my presence and reassurances make her pain more bearable.  there seems to be little else i can offer.

may we be there for those who are suffering.  when we can do nothing else, may we hold the hands of those who need our help.  may we express our love and compassion by staying with those who are hurting.  may we hold them in our hearts without judging them or seeking to impose our own solutions on them.  may our lovingkindness be undergirded with understanding.  shalom.