“You only truly see with your heart.
What is essential is invisible to the eyes.”
This is the quote from the book “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Written during the times of WWII, it’s been around for almost four generations now.
I find this very true. It is not always easy to know what a person feels. Especially in patriarchal society – or in business, where it is considered ‘good form’ to keep a ‘stiff upper lip’.
That’s why you need to know yourself and your reactions to situations. Because empathy is about that: to ‘feel with’ or ‘relate to’ – others. Some things in life can become so hard and so difficult to get through – it’s sometimes even necessary to pretend to cheerfulness. Why?
There are people who believe you should get through difficult times rather speedily. When you’ve encountered a deeply moving experience, existential as it were, may that be job loss, death of loved ones or a natural disaster – you are supposed to just ‘keep it together’, wipe your tears (if any) and keep going.
‘Letting go’ being the order of the day.
Others are of almost the opposite opinion: You should see for some time the sadness and affliction on the face of the person. If you don’t they consider it a sign of crudeness and carelessness.
I find it difficult in hard times to always show everyone at any time how sad I may feel. Of course, there are those who wouldn’t even care to know. Those we rather just nod at and walk on because they would just shrug their shoulders. Simply put.
But there are those who care – and they are not all of the same mindset. That’s why I still think: Whatever the appearances may be – and they can be deceptive, as we all know:
“You only truly see with your heart.
What is essential is invisible to the eyes.”
In hard times it can be crucial that trust and confidence can be felt – trust and confidence in our ability to eventually master all the misfortunes or afflictions we randomly are presented with.