Those who comfort us

“Do not believe that the person who is trying to offer you solace lives his life effortlessly among the simple and quiet words that might occasionally comfort you. His life also is filled with much hardship and sadness….But if it were otherwise, he could never have found these words.” ~Rainer Maria Rilke in Letters on Life

When we were kids, our parents and grandparents were the superheroes who chased monsters out of our closets and kept us safe. We didn’t realize, until we grew up, that our all-powerful folks were human beings who had their own worries and demons to battle.

It’s tempting to assume that the people we always rely on for strength or sympathy have few challenges of their own, or that they “live effortlessly” while we struggle.

Nobody lives a charmed life. Writing from his own experience, Austrian author Rainer Maria Rilke reminds us that those who console us have suffered deeply too, and we need to respect that. The comfort they are able to offer others grew from the lessons they learned from their own heartbreak. ~CL