The Greater Gift

"I cannot take someone else's pain or rescue them.

I cannot change what they are feeling, patch it up and move along."

Azriel ReShel

The path of life leads us down differing roads to teach us how to live fully.  We make choices and experience the consequences.  We may find a path too lengthy or abruptly ending, or sadly enough at a dead end.  

We may find ourselves in a grassy field strewn with wild flowers or in the middle of a muddy stream.  Nature hones our skills to successfully bloom as we were intended.  We learn to weed, withstand storms, embrace the sun, and breathe in the moon.

With these experiences, it is difficult to watch others struggling  on life's path.  With our compassion we want to circumvent life experience to move them along with less pain, but in the long run, a short cut is not always the best route.  If we remove the boulder from someone's path, the lesson has not been experienced.  To be present while a kindred spirit becomes lost can be the greater gift.