You are more powerful than you know.

It turns out the solution is to listen. Nothing needs to be fixed.

That’s the question that will provoke your imagination into revealing an apocalyptic landscape of failure and rejection that will freeze your fingers on the keyboard.

       Here are two really bad ways to respond to someone telling you they have Crohn’s (or any other serious condition).
       Option 1: Change the subject
       Option 2: Rub it in

My first surgery was August 28, six years ago, and it was a Friday. Somehow, the parallel world of six years ago feels very near, like only tissue paper divides me from it, the same date, even the same day as six years ago. And I feel like it's all happening again.

            You’ll recognize this question if you’ve ever really suffered: “Why is this happening to me?” Over time I have found one thought that comforts me, and perhaps it will comfort you, too.

            I invite you into My Dark Place to hear it, as it is a very dark thought. And it is this:

            Everybody suffers.