Daily Dawn Messages 🌅

The One Who Needs to Be Sat Beside

There are moments when compassion asks you to sit beside someone who is suffering.

And there are moments when
the suffering being is you.

In those moments, notice how quickly you may become your own examiner.

Why am I still upset?
Why can't I handle this better?
What is wrong with me?

But suffering does not always need an explanation.

Sometimes it needs companionship.

Place your hand over your heart and ask:

What hurts?

Do not correct the answer.

Do not make it reasonable.

Do not hurry toward healing.

Listen.

And then ask:

What is the cry beneath this?

Perhaps it is:

I am tired.

I wanted this to work.

I am afraid.

I wanted to be chosen.

I need someone to stay.

Whatever comes, let it be heard.

Then say quietly:

I will not leave myself while I am suffering.

You do not have to carry yourself out of the darkness.

You do not have to solve the whole sorrow.

For this moment, simply sit beside the one who hurts.

Sometimes self-mercy is not making yourself feel better.

It is refusing to abandon yourself because you do not.

— Dawn of Dawns