Humanity

Today I ventured out into the world and had a very humbling and touching experience for which I am grateful.  This experience was with a male work colleague who is not always seen as a man who expresses his emotions or for which emotional expression seems to come easily.  We spoke of a situation in which a young person is struggling significantly despite the efforts of others to help, and as we spoke (it was a brief conversation which makes the experience in many ways more heartfelt) the man's face became soft, his eyes slightly watery and his gaze began to fixate off into the distance.  He was clearly in the moment and in touch with his emotions and, his own humanity.  He said how it saddened him to think of this young man and his struggles, and how difficult it was to comprehend that someone so young, might have such struggle so early in life.

This experience moved me and it felt momentarily as if time was standing still.  The moment did not last long as the multitude of distractions and demands of work took over and everyone moved on to the next task.  It did remind me that we are all connected, can and do feel each other's pain and importantly, care for each other (even if it looks from the outside as if we may not).  At the end of the day all we have is each other and our own humanity.