Listening intentionally; intently to another's burdens can leave me feeling burdened and numb. I am now a counsellor and have chosen to tread very deliberately onto this winding path of another's journey past. Sometimes it is my own past that comes back to my mind like a lightening flash when the person across from me shares, but sometimes the flash is the flash of a camera that captures a raw negative of an event/situation that leaves my heart aching and my head out to sea. Often the burden settles into a recess in my mind after the person sharing their story has left and I am reflecting back on all they have told me (thankfully). I always pray for the people who share themselves in my work and that has helped often, but sometimes something seems to stick and I can't just carry merrily on with my life. I need a process, a deep place within another that I trust to place this precious pain and terrible picture; captured. I know it will be in the Father that I find this place, but the process will include others around me who will listen to my weighty words and tell me it's ok.