It’s so hard to watch someone you love cry.
It doesn’t matter that it’s not your fault. It doesn’t matter that there’s nothing you could have done.
They’re in pain, and you feel it.
That’s what it is to be close to someone.
When you’re that close, their feelings invade your own. Their pain is your agony.
And there’s nothing you can do.
Sometimes you cry with them.
Sometimes you try to make them feel better by making terrible jokes.
And all the time you feel like there’s something more you should be doing. Something you could say. Something you could fix.
I wish it could be the way it is when you’re little.
You fall down. You cry.
Then Mommy ‘kisses it better’ and everything is fine.
Everything was so much simpler then.
Now everything is harder.
Magic kisses lose their power.
Even Mickey Mouse band-aids can’t cheer you up.
If only they could.
I would buy a dozen boxes and slap them on every one I know who’s hurting. They could forget their pain, so absorbed it the brights colors and the smiling mouse-
If only things were that simple.
All I can do is listen.
Because all the Mickey Mouse band-aids in the world can’t fix a hurting heart.