From the Llewellyn Tarot, the Queen of Cups; from the Beasts of Albion, the Dolphin:
Another nice pairing today: the Queen of emotions and relationships meets the Dolphin who represents intelligent caring. This queen's cloak floats out toward the waves while she remains stable in her chair. Like the lifeguard who carries a floatation device to extend to someone who is drowning, she realizes that becoming submerged with a person in emotional distress does no one any good. Her compassion allows her to sit with the suffering of someone else, offering them advice if wanted, but without becoming engulfed. Sometimes the best she can do is tell them she will bear witness so they don't have to suffer alone.
The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.
― Henri Nouwen
took me a long time to learn this lesson. We can't fix anyone but ourself and that is a lifetime task.
ReplyDeleteI am a fixer and have to be reminded that mostly others just want someone to listen to them.
ReplyDeleteSounds like all three of us have had to learn that while we can encourage others, the only person we can work on is ourselves. :)
ReplyDeleteSharyn is right, that in itself is a life long task.
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