Others pain

When will the anger stop
It's about me
I get an email from my sister
Showing how much she cares for a friend of ours
I don't know her friend that well
Why does my sister have to reach out to every person she knows
Who is in pain
I don't know
I do
It's not a question mark
She carries the pain of others and buries her own
Until it becomes too much for her
And even in the caring email she sends to console
There's something oddly generic about it
She can't go deeper because she's dealing with her own issues
She gets information wrong
Then when corrected, she goes on to explain what she's going through
I didn't ask to hear any of it
And yet it goes on
One pain after another
And we diminish ourselves
Forget we are worth anything
Because others pain is so much greater than ours
The problem is
Everywhere in this world
There are people suffering more than us
Where does that leaves us
Our needs are important too
And the weird thing is
Now this sounds like a boohoo piece
"Our needs are important too"
How trite, how obvious
The key seems to be
How much is too much
The obvious answer seems to be
When our health is diminished by caring for others
And we continue to crumble because there is always someone worse off
Then comes the anger
We feel others are abusing us
But they aren't
They didn't ask for our help
We offered it
It's not about my sister
It's about me
It's about each of us
We have a choice
We always have a choice.

Denis Streeter  5/8/13