It’s strange, but I can’t remember a time in my life when we have all been in the same boat. Facing the same challenges and uncertainties. Knowing that we are in the brace of the unknown in a more spectacular fashion then has ever been imagined.
It’s not a particularly positive thought but the reality is that if you realise just how equal we currently stand, isn’t that a potentially marvellous thing? That this journey has an ending that will have an impact on every single one of us? And such a shared journey also means a shared strength. The idea that right now empathy is so much stronger than sympathy.
When we reach out, or someone reaches out to us, we need and we should as much as we can, dispense more empathy than sympathy. Why? Because empathy demonstrates that we are not alone. We are here, we are together and we can be stronger then we thought possible.
Yes some (or perhaps most) days are hard. Getting out of bed is hard. Doing things for yourself is hard. However, finding validation in knowing that you are not alone, can be the source of an unsurprising strength.
So when we are told and reached out to, the time is no longer about feeling sympathy for someone but it is acknowledging not only to yourself but to them as well, that we are not alone. And when all this ends, I hope that we continue being the strength for each other. Because although we may be at home fighting our own demons, being at home means that those demons that are keeping us at home are being kept at bay.
