Anguish shared divides us, yet doubles pain. I am not sure you know that.  I am not sure it matters if you do know that…

You, thousands of miles away, do not see me, cannot see me, and probably would not wish to see me, sitting placidly on a comfortable couch, sipping organic coffee, observing two eagles soaring on spring breezes, awkwardly, in an azure, non-threatening sky. 

I think I am not as peaceful as them. I think they know more than I ever will. I am so soaked in my privilege that I think it’s all about me.

Then I think of you and can’t comprehend, cannot imagine what you are feeling, doing, risking, seeing, observing in your threatening skies. Or on your sacred ground…do you stumble over corpses of once beloveds? Has grief shattered all will to move your foot one more step?

I am not there. I do not know. Anguish shared, divides us, yet doubles pain.

I don’t mean my arrogance to speak for me. To say I share your anguish is not at all accurate. 

What I do mean, in my meager way, through my limited lens—is that I am with you in spirit—whether you know that or not. 

We are, after all, neighbors on the quantum light beam. You are right around that invisible corner from me.

Knowing that can’t possibly bring you joy, or much comfort. It doesn’t for me, either. But I send my prayers and love to you on the unseen threads that unite us, trusting in some strange way, they reach your heart and help you through.

Copyright, Gloria DeGaetano, 2022.

ART: Marc Chagall, The Ukrainian Family