Friday, November 21, 2014

Powerless

I woke up to an upset stomach today and concluded on the drive to boot camp that I think it's in my head.  Yesterday I spent hourS on the phone (which I never do) with one of my favorite people in the world, a friend I first met in law school.  She lives halfway across the country and the best way to describe her current status is distress.  She's so unhappy and I want more than anything to be able to fix it somehow.  It hurts my heart to know how sad she is.  She's already been through a lot in terms of a divorce, a move, the death of a parent, fertility struggles, the serious illness of her other parent (who didn't take care of herself well as she dealt with her husband's illness), one of the most stressful jobs in this country (complete with being assailed on various "news" networks), the death of both of her dogs within a couple years of each other, a stress fracture, and now, a supportive partner who is AWOL due to his own insane work.  God never gives you more than you can handle, right?  Actually, I don't buy that -- sadly, some people decide they can't handle it.  I'm not worried about her in that regard, but I wish so much I could make it better.  I'm hoping that I can manage a visit to see her in January, but that's a long time away.  I'm at a loss.  I wish I had Inspector Gadget arms and I could just stretch them out and give her the biggest hug ever. 

2 comments:

  1. So sorry to hear this ... and it is really hard when you want to be able to help but there is so little you can do. I remember after my brother's heart attack last year in the midst of a nasty divorce feeling good that while I couldn't do anything aboout either (or the impact on the kids), I could act in his place with phone calls with his ex, and not even pretend to be objective or unbiased.

    I definitely find the 'God never gives ...' crap to be dismissive and disempowering, and probably lead as many people to toss it in as it does motivate people to push on.

    Sorry :(

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  2. i really hate it when my long-distance friends are having woes and i can't be there for them physically...i always feel like i'm not doing everything i should be doing as their friend. it's always a hard pill for me to swallow so i know how you feel

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