"From my experience with “wintering”, people will ignore my existence or just leave.
They may no longer see a reason to hang around if they can’t see any signs of life or if they see too much bruised fruit from life’s hail storms or diseased branches"
This is so profound as the whole piece is, but this resonates with me... It is difficult for people to step into the suffering and I believe there are many reasons for that. Sometimes it is just too much and they do not know what to say, so they say nothing at all, and to those suffering it does feel like you are being ignored and that you do not matter. And you feel self blame and shame because no one is there to breathe life into you again.
My hope would be that we would never be afraid of suffering because we will all experience something in our lives and it is then, we need each other the most...
Again just a quiet presence letting that person know they are not alone is probaly the easiest place to start and will have the biggest impact...
Well said, Karen, and exactly how I have felt as I experieced this. I think it always shocks us when people cannot hold space for us the way we would do for them if they were suffering. It is nice to finally find your people who can and do stand in the gaps!