The Crappy Year

Empathy:  Identification with or understanding of the thoughts, feelings, or emotional state of another person. 

Every now and then, when the anxiety is waxing, I take the time to write down the events that have contributed to the kind of year I've had.  It has been a crappy year.  Or, at least, a trying year, a painful year.  For someone who drones on and on about "it's not a good thing and it's not a bad thing - it's just a thing" I do a crappy job of putting my own advice into practice.

I look at the list and think: "Wow.  This really has been a crappy year."

I started to go - on the recommendation of a friend - to a grief group.  I've been twice and I'm going to keep going even though I'm still a bit skeptical.  I'm not much of a joiner and I'm not much of a suffer-in-public guy, either.  I'm not much of a suffer-anywhere guy, actually.  I find myself drifting into the somewhat cold and clinical"just get over it" train of thought.  There are some people there who have experienced sudden, traumatic losses and a few lonely hearts who really seem to me to be hanging onto something for the comfort that hanging onto something can bring.

As you can see I need to work on my empathy.