Dear diary,
A friend of mine share this really great article on Facebook the other day called: The Mistake I Made with my Grieving Friend by Celeste Headlee. Enjoy it here.
I feel like my husband makes this same “mistake” with me when I share my feelings about loosing my father last year. He tries to help by telling me about his feelings when that happened to him, when all I really wanted him to do was just listen to me and acknowledge my feelings. In anger, I have told him: “hey I am not talking about you here, please don’t turn this around like that”! Not saying that his emotions and experiences are any less important, but at the time, I really needed him to be focusing on me.
I know, I too, have done this in the past. I felt like I was “connecting” with who was talking to me and had no idea that I was just uncomfortable with the topic at hand. Now that I understand what it is like to grieve, I feel I can also better understand how to be more empathic to others by being a better listener.
Sometimes you have to come full circle to connect.
~an enlightened, american, Vegan
diary of a MAD, american, Vegan 