Empathy

Being empathic can be a gift, or a curse. Empathy is the seeing, feeling, knowing of pain for the other as though you too, were suffering. Shutting this off or down is a natural inclination, self preservation being the more comfortable choice rather than suffering~why suffer if you have an option?  Feeling the pain, being with it as coach means to stay, being courageous enough to acknowledge it and not run and hide. How can I be a soft place to land for another when I cut and run if and when pain appears?  How can I love another to their own strength if I cannot hold them in their pain?  How can I be the ears and eyes, the witness of strength when I am unavailable to the heart break, the soul wrenching suffering.  In the sharing, their is the fortifying, in the spilling of blood, there is the knitting together of the wound, in the healing, their is the unifying of souls.  Love God,  love others, change the world.  What else is there?