From Facebook yesterday, quoting the American writer Ernest Hemingway:

In our darkest moments, we don’t need advice.  What we truly need is presence, someone to sit with us in the shadows, to acknowledge our suffering without trying to fix it.  In those moments, silence and understanding speak louder than words, offering a quiet strength that reminds us we’re not alone.  It’s not solutions we seek, but connection.

And here’s a response from a Spirit named Bob Rufsvold:

So true.  So sad that he did not himself make that connection in his darkest moments.  I would like to not just wonder, but really understand the irony of it.  Perhaps if we truly understood the depths of each other’s suffering, we could be more available to stand in the breach, to be that presence standing in the shadows.  Perhaps we must simply be that presence even when we do not understand, simply knowing that your suffering touches my suffering.  Not advice, but love.  Only love allows us to be truly present.

Well and lovingly said, Ernest and Bob