Empathy. 

A word I found that stemmed from a grandiose resilience. 

A word of such capacity to hold a sparkling treasure for those to know that it could be held within them if they allowed it to.

Located towards all that have bared the coarseness upon their skin from their experience. Please, there is no need to shed anymore skin.

For those who have ever held this coarseness, they do not need to lose their strength to gain the empathy and they do not need to lose their empathy to gain their strength.

Disbelieving in the ability to familiarize and understand a sensitivity to this often harsh world, is a power in itself.

There is power when we climb through the gateway of perseverance. A terrain often from wild growing forests to free-flowing rivers as we compare our copious feelings of what others feel. Yet, we continue and we persevere.

Having empathy is not a foundation or a way to find justification for another’s behaviour.

We continue to trust again after manipulation of having a heart wrapped carelessly in the hands of another, this is the strength. 

Handing a heart to someone new, this is the force. 

It is the reconnection to white-watered currents as they flow towards new opportunities of joy, even amidst the rapids of a lack of control, this is the mastery. 

It is the tedious game of tug of war. It is wanting to release the lump in your throat, to get the justice deserved, whilst simultaneously yearning to give love to those that caused you pain, this is the faith.

As we look among our deepest scar tissue and the physical manifestations of the fear left on the mind and bodies, perhaps it is time now for us to acknowledge that we personify our strength through it all.

When we still love so hard because we see all of their light beneath the shadows that they let surface upon us, understanding the depths of their own pain in measurement to the pain they had caused, this is the truth. 

We know that to experience empathy we can discover that same wish to serve them, to have faith in that we might change them. 

We cannot. 

If you are feeling bewildered by a battle, perhaps in a mud that feels like it is inevitably mutating to quicksand.

If you may feel that nothing but your own roots are there to pull you out. 

Know that you no longer need to rescue yourself. 

Know that you no longer need to reach for your own hand to pull yourself from the muddied waters.

Remember, empathy is like remembering the night sky; there are stars if you look. 

You are all of them.