Hi,
Sometimes I wonder how many misunderstandings, broken friendships, and quiet heartbreaks could have been avoided if we all just stopped for one second before reacting. Not to be perfect. Not to hold back. Just to pause.
So often we move through the world on autopilot — quick words, quick silences, quick exits. But empathy is in the pause. It’s in asking, what if the roles were reversed? What if that silence was directed at me? What if those words were mine to hear instead of theirs to say?
That’s where this piece came from.
Poem:
No, because I don’t get it—
how can you just move through the world
without stopping to feel it?
Without thinking, even for a second,
what it would be like
if the roles were reversed?
If I said that to you.
If I ignored you that way.
If I made you feel small
when all you needed was softness.
It’s not about being perfect.
It’s about pausing.
Caring.
Asking yourself—
how would I feel
if someone did this to me?
Empathy isn’t hard.
It just requires a heart
that listens
before it reacts.
Empathy doesn’t mean fixing everything. It doesn’t even mean agreeing. It just means remembering that other people feel as deeply as you do. That one pause could be the difference between wounding someone or making them feel safe.
Talk soon,
Poems I’ll Never Post
✨ P.S. My book Tears of the Soul is out now. It’s a collection of poems on love, heartbreak, healing, and the ways we can soften toward ourselves and each other. You can get your copy here: https://getbook.to/TearsOfTheSoul.
If it speaks to you, I’d be so grateful if you shared your thoughts here: https://myreview.to/TearsOfTheSoul.
