*Please note I have no surgical, medical or allied health qualifications to make any recommendations, judgments or opinions  on treatment you have received, now receiving or plan to receive.  

Of the pieces I've written so far, this one is more challenging than all the others combined. I know what I mean but will a reader? That's the unknown. Well, here goes. 

I understand broken bones. I can see them, feel them. How to appropriately befriend one whose mind is bruised or broken in some way because of illness, disease, accident or just getting older is another matter. Professional help is best left to professionals but I think there is a place for the reassuring presence of family and friends in the healing process. I recall the morning I was hit by a car while riding my bike. My thinking took a battering as did my body. So many 'what if' questions about the future for which there was no reassuring answer in my present state. I wish my mind healed in the time it took the bones to recover.  Mercifully not all brokenness is permanent. Family and good friends knew the healing significance of just 'being there'.    

My 87 years old friend George is very definite that those who have gone through or are going through brokenness and serious pain, make the most effective understanding and compassionate people of influence. I knew about the consequences of bike injuries but I had to have my crash to really know the full effects of that crisis on body and mind. I am blessed to be healed enough to get on with life as best I can. I am very aware this is not the case for so many. So, what to do with what I have?   

Brokenness is teaching me the necessity of listening-not merely hearing. Hearing tempts me to come up with answers to questions not yet asked. Listening teaches me to keep my mouth shut and not interrupt someone who feels safe enough to tell me stuff that is important to them. I'm still a work-in-progress with this skill. Listening to my voice telling my story is painful at times but still healing. It helps me consider my options each day. At the very least I should provide that courtesy for anyone talking with me. If I wait until everything in my body and mind is working properly, before encouraging folk to become people of influence, I will wait a long time.