It's amazing to me how our own pain can be put into perspective if we stop thinking about ourselves all the time and look around.
Mom recently has had two friends with tragic news related to their sons. One lost her son, an experienced diver, in a deep sea diving accident after a freak malfunction of his equipment. The other's son was diagnosed with a glioblastoma multiforme, a very serious type of brain tumor which usually carries a poor prognosis, even with the most aggressive treatment.
Finally, I heard a story that has preoccupied me since I learned of it. A story about us, basically, but not exactly. A story so like ours that I know I have a role to play. We learned of a couple in Nashville, friends of a friend, who lost a baby girl after 4 days of life. For 24 hours, she started her life perfectly healthy and then the news came, and 3 days later she was gone.
I relived our 4 days with Elise. I felt it all over again. Of course it hurt...but not as much as it used to...and the more powerful emotion was of the hope that, through my pain, I could maybe help someone else's pain, just a little. That I might just give a little wisdom or a little comfort or something. It's not like taking solace in another's pain but like knowing what the experience might bring. Maybe it's not about me anymore, maybe it's time to wake up to this amazing, ugly, colorful, screw-up, broken world and come at it, not with a hammer, but with ears to listen.