Facing down fears together with someone else makes them less. We are more than the sum of our parts together, when we are connected. When we take a leap into faith together, let go of needing to win or control, see our difficulties as things we face together. Like jumping down a hole to help out a friend stuck there, because we’ve been down there before and know the way out. Do you remember? Do you remember a time you were down a hole, and all the help you got was prayers, platitudes, and prescriptions thrown upon you like an avalanche of sympathy cards until you couldn’t breathe? Do you remember fighting to hang on one more day, hopeless with bleak despair, watching people hurry past, averting their eyes from your situation, the shame, the fear? Do you remember feeling abandoned, like an unwanted child, less than human? Do you remember someone stopping, seeing you, reaching out to you, genuine concern etched on their face for your terrible predicament? Do you remember feeling heard, held, loved by someone who had no reason to, other than wanting to? Wanting to help, more than they wanted to fear you?