Compassionate Friends

This morning a friend sent me an article from the Jan/Feb issue of the Compassionate Friends Newsletter.  The article echoed their feelings about going through the loss of a sibling.  As I read the article, one line jumped out,

“Many feelings, thoughts or emotions that I may have thought were just mine I have found are universal with others.”

Just recently I was also reading Agnes's Jacket and came across a similar sentiment.  In Chapter One we hear about a lady named Helen who unfortunately started hearing voices and who's life spiraled down into hospitalization.. Fortunately she was told about the Hearing Voices Network (HVN) and, equally fortuitous, a group was just starting in a nearby day centre.  When Helen learned the group was one of 150 voice support groups in Britain, she said,

" I thought I'd faint.  I had no idea there were so many other people struggling with the same problem as I was."

Over three thousand years ago, the Epic of Gilgamesh described characters in a human drama.  The "Epic" notion aside, if we look around today, I don’t believe we’d see anyone with vastly different loves, hopes or fears than the people in the story.  I think if we read enough about other people or talk enough to others we’ll find humans are still pretty basic even today. 

The sense that I am not like someone else is a double edged sword with neither edge serving us well.  Either I look down on someone thinking I’m not like them or I look up at others feeling like I‘m not like them.  Either way I create an imaginary barrier between my humanity and other people’s humanity.  That’s the sting of stigma - the feeling of isolation it brings.

If you feel like you’re the only one in the world who is feeling the way you do – it’s not true.  It simply is not reality.  Look around on the internet, read about other people or, if you can, talk to people.  Someone somewhere knows what you’re talking about and feels compassion because they have had that pain.  Don’t give up.