Reach out in love

Reach out in love

When your heart is aching

Know that the heartache you feel

Others too have known too

For people may never show on the outside

What is really going on inside

And so don’t assume

They don’ t struggle too

So many of us find ourselves

Without the connections we crave

And we can drive the pain deeper

When we tell ourselves it should not be this way

And probably not

In a world that was less externally focused

And more caring

We would find a balm for our troubled souls

I only know this from my own struggles

I felt more alone

When I thought I was the only one

Feeling this

Going through this

When I realised others struggled too

And could reach out

Then my healing began

As my journey went on

I also saw

That the ones who hurt me

Often did it

Not out of any deliberate malice

But just out of ignorance

Or lack of awareness

There are probably people out there who intentionally want to hurt

But I am not sure that is the majority

Some people have deadened feeling

And a heart that goes mute to despair

For the empaths amongst us

This is so hard to bear

For this way of being

Does not enter our reality

Just as the depth of our own suffering doesn’t enter theirs

We can be glad one level

If we suffer so

For it means our hearts are awake

And no longer numb

And tough as it is

That my friends is a gift

At this time of collective crisis

So use your pain well

Let it be the balm that determines you

Give birth to compassion

From deep within

The cave of your heart