Pain is a Universal Language

Pain is a universal language that needs no interpreter. I have seen more pain the past few weeks than I've seen in a long,long time. Maybe I am just wearing down with it all. The thing about pain is that it imprisons a person in such a way there is no escape. Trying to run or medicate works for awhile, but even these coping skills only have a temporary lifespan. You have to get away, but getting away only means that coming back is inevitable.

When I discharged a client from her two-week participation in the brief intensive therapy program she completed yesterday, I gave her a symbolic going away present. I remembered having to get out a new box of kleenex from the supply cabinet when she arrived. Now on the last day, in the last hour of our session, she pulled the last kleenex from the box. As she wiped the last tear from her face, we laughed about her using a whole box full of kleenexes. I took the scissors and dismantled the box so it would lay flat. I handed the flattened package to her as a memorial of the "only way" she could release herself of the pain...crying!

Finding a safe place to grieve losses is a starting place for dumping the pain in our souls. There is something about someone "being there" and sharing the pain with you. Truly a burden shared is reduced, not magnified. Crying helps. But someone crying with you is even better.