Good morning…
“Very timely after reading your blog this morning,” she texted after yesterday’s post Depression: What NOT To Say. “A friend posted this today on Facebook,” she wrote, sharing the story below.
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It occurred to Pooh and Piglet that they hadn’t heard from Eeyore for several days, so they put on their hats and coats and trotted across the Hundred Acre Wood to Eeyore’s stick house. Inside the house was Eeyore.
“Hello Eeyore,” said Pooh.
“Hello Pooh. Hello Piglet,” said Eeyore, in a Glum Sounding Voice.
“We just thought we’d check in on you,” said Piglet, “because we hadn’t heard from you, and so we wanted to know if you were okay.”
Eeyore was silent for a moment. “Am I okay?” he asked, eventually. “Well, I don’t know, to be honest. Are any of us really okay? That’s what I ask myself. All I can tell you, Pooh and Piglet, is that right now I feel really rather Sad, and Alone, and Not Much Fun To Be Around At All. Which is why I haven’t bothered you. Because you wouldn’t want to waste your time hanging out with someone who is Sad, and Alone, and Not Much Fun To Be Around At All, would you now.”
Pooh looked at Piglet, and Piglet looked at Pooh, and they both sat down, one on either side of Eeyore in his stick house.
Eeyore looked at them in surprise. “What are you doing?”
“We’re sitting here with you,” said Pooh, “because we are your friends. And true friends don’t care if someone is feeling Sad, or Alone, or Not Much Fun To Be Around At All. True friends are there for you anyway. And so here we are.”
“Oh,” said Eeyore. “Oh.” And the three of them sat there in silence, and while Pooh and Piglet said nothing at all; somehow, almost imperceptibly, Eeyore started to feel a very tiny little bit better.
Because Pooh and Piglet were There.
No more; no less.
__________
A.A. Milne, E.H. Shepard
#mentalhealth #Friends #Friendship #winniethepooh
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“You and I both know these feelings,” her text continued. “Everything in your post this morning rings true for me.”
“I love the Winnie the Pooh story,” I replied. “I have never heard it before. Yes, you are right, the timing is perfect, synchronicity orchestrated by the Spirit of God.”
“You are also right that we both know this feeling,” I affirmed. “Sad. Alone. Not Much Fun To Be Around At All. Fortunately every feeling we ever experience eventually passes and somehow we miraculously feel a very tiny little bit better.”
Three of Job’s friends heard of all the trouble that had fallen on him. Each traveled from his own country—Eliphaz from Teman, Bildad from Shuhah, Zophar from Naamath—and went together to Job to keep him company and comfort him. When they first caught sight of him, they couldn’t believe what they saw—they hardly recognized him! They cried out in lament, ripped their robes, and dumped dirt on their heads as a sign of their grief. Then they sat with him on the ground. Seven days and nights they sat there without saying a word. They could see how rotten he felt, how deeply he was suffering (Job 2:11-13, MSG).
After seven days and seven night’s Job’s friends became impatient, sharing insensitive opinions, trying to “fix” Job’s suffering. To cure our own feelings of uselessness and powerlessness (which is exactly what the depressed person feels) we are apt to become impatient, sharing insensitive opinions and trying to “fix” the suffering of our loved ones.
Oh that we might simply sit for as long as it takes, attentive to God and to our loved ones and, like Pooh and Piglet, remain peacefully present to the Sad, the Alone and the Not Much Fun To Be Around At All.
…Sue…
