Today, I want to talk about helping people. Or maybe, more specifically, not being able to help people. Lately, one of the themes of my life is having people around me who I care about very much, and are having some sort of serious problem, but I can't help them. For someone like me who is very empathic and wants to be helpful, this can be a really stressful situation. One of my friends, for example, was very upset recently and called saying that she desperately needed someone to talk to. Another friend is extremely nervous about something coming up. The reasons why I can't help vary all over the place. Sometimes I can't help because of logistical things; I am not physically with the person, for example. Sometimes it's just emotional; they don't trust me to help, they aren't willing to accept help, or aren't ready for help. There's as many reasons as there are friends. But it's incredibly painful to see them suffer and know that there's just nothing to do. Maybe that's one of the sad aspects of being human; the knowledge that, at the end of the day, there's really nothing we can do for another person who's suffering. They have to make their own changes. And of course, the challenge there is to stay engaged; to remember that there *are* things we can do, sometimes, and stay ready to help when I can. It's tempting to just close the doors, isolate myself from other people, avoid getting involved with them. Especially those people with problems. But of course they are the ones that need the engagement the most.