Sarah's gift

My eight year-old niece, Sarah, shared a gift with me yesterday. I wonder if she knows? Sarah does not use words. She communicates in her own Sarah way that for many of us is hard to understand. It's a guessing game and you wonder, what is going on in that head of hers? No doubt there is more going on than any of us could know.

I'm healing from a recent break-up and yesterday was a sad day. So, I started to cry. Sarah, aware of my state just a room away began shedding her own tears. Nothing funny about it, but at the same time it brought a smile to my face. There was something comical about the exchange, and also something endearing. Sarah knows. I was hurting and Sarah starting hurting, too. I decided it was her own trick way of getting me out of my funk. "Rebecca, you can no longer feel sorry for yourself, you have to help me!" Sometimes it takes comforting another to comfort oneself; to be brought out of one's own inner pain we need to attend to the pain of another. So, we cuddled. I held Sarah with her stuffed piggy, wiped her eyes and told her it was going to be ok. Thanks, Sarah. I needed that. It is going to be ok, isn't it?