Oh Ann. This is such a great perspective. A wonderful article. Thank you cool-purple-hair-girl.

Yesterday I sat by the fire with a dear friend for three hours. Wishing I could make her troubles go away. Yet like you I knew that listening was my best gift to her.

I wanted to tell her that the stove top was hot. That I knew because I burned my own hands on it. I wanted to show her my red hands and say: See. Now you don’t have to touch the stove and find out for yourself. I so very much wanted to help her, to save her from more pain and hardship.

But I too have learned that people need to find out on their own about the hot stove. Friends and family just need to be there for them. Like you write in this article. Sages.