The constant annoying chirp coming from the ceiling was doing me a huge favor. The batteries in the smoke detector were kind enough to tell me they needed to be changed. 

My annoyance eventually shifted to gratitude as I climbed the ladder and replaced the two AA batteries. Grateful to be made aware of a situation and to proactively take care of it.

But not everything that is broken tells us that it is.

Especially when it comes to people.

We humans are quite good at masking pain, aren’t we? Of hiding the hurt behind radiant smiles and jovial laughter, creating an outer perception of “all togetherness” while being anything but on the inside.

The expression of pain and hurt is viewed as a weakness, an emotional liability in a world which seemingly only values strength. So facades are built, walls are constructed, and the painful burdens are locked away deep within.

The pain may be hidden, but the pain is still there.

It’s always there.

Life hurts at times. And emotional pain can be quite resilient. It lingers. It persists. It’s something we all know because it’s something we’ve all experienced.

We may never know the details of another’s pain, a pain often hidden from a world which often demonstrates its indifference to individual suffering. We, too, can offer our own indifference. 

Or we can choose to offer our compassionate understanding, and in doing so acknowledging that we all carry the emotional scars of our lives silently within us. This commonality of pain unites us all, and with it the opportunity to offer our own level of compassionate understanding to those we encounter along our path. 

We will never carry another’s burden.

Perhaps, though, we can lighten their load.

Let’s take care of each other, shall we?

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