What do you doWhen someone you love is being abused? They tell you their storiesYou show them the articles, the lists, you compare their current relationship with your pastand they can see it but not for them?When it hurts…when you realize what it feels liketo have done everything you possibly canto have exhausted all of your options?To know the feeling of despair, frustration and hopelessness of realizing no matter what you do, you can’t make it better?You remain their friendYou wait patientlyYou offer supportYou show them what Real Love looks like and feels likeYou teach them that not all of us are like thatYou waste a few more tears…you pray…to Whomever it is you find comfort withyou get on with your own lifeand wonderWas there something more I could have done?Did I push too much?Not enough? Back off far enough? too far?Whatever you do, you don’t give upyou defiantly REFUSE to let yourself feel the despair for themtheir helplessness, their rage…you let them find those feelings on their ownyou can’t wake them up.You don’t let go…you just keep holding on looselywaiting, hopingYou help those who readyYou reach out, and hope that maybe, through this ‘small world’ it all comes back aroundYou stand there in the darkness, in one hand, a candle to light the waythe other, open and reaching out…waiting for them to reach up and take it…You do your best to usher others to their own paths, and find that you’re also helping yourself, you cry out for support (after all, you are human and frail sometimes, too)and you go to sleepand you get up the next day, and the next, and you just keep living your life…but you never, ever forgetand pray that somehow, a seed was sownand remember how it was for youthat even the sun (Son), water (tears) and soil (nourishment)alone will only grow a weak plant. to fully grow, to thrive…requires fertilizer.Just ruminating tonight…did something i probably should not have…I read through some of the recent b.s. one of my friends have been going through…for some stupid reason, I type it up…I suppose to keep it from rolling around in my head like the proverbial last marble (and from bringing it up to them–that’s the last thing someone being abused needs–an ‘understanding’ friend trying to tell them how to think…they get enough of that crap from their evil SO)…and wonder what it’s going to take? A heart attack? An anxiety attack? Violence? A complete mental and emotional break-down? How much worse does it have to get? What more could I possibly do? Maybe the answer is, “Nothing.” That sucks, frankly.