The value of compassion cannot be over-emphasized. Anyone can criticize. It takes a true believer to be compassionate. No greater burden can be borne by an individual than to know no one cares or understands.
-- H. Stainbeck
-- H. Stainbeck
I'm not feeling very compassionate towards Mark these days; I'm feeling more resentful and burned out.
And, consequently, guilty.
2 comments:
Let the guilt go...you did NOTHING wrong to bring it on. Right?
Guilt should only come to us when we do something wrong...you have NOT.
DO NOT feel guilty. Sounds to me like you have been nothing short of supportive. But there comes a time when "supportive" can easily blur into "enabling" and I know from what tiny bit of experience I have, guilting yourself into misery is a step in that direction. It is for me, anyway.
I don't know that my brother is mentally ill - I know he doesn't have, has never had, the physical problems that your brother has - but everyone in my family has let themselves feel guilty about the situations he manages to get into. I'm so frustrated with him right now I can't think straight. I can't blog either about happy sunshiny things that I should be happy about in MY life because my blog starts to bleed with my anger with him. And then I start to feel guilty. I have to put it away.
Suz (up above me) is right - let the guilt go. You are not the cause of his problems, you have not done anything wrong. And just because you cannot fix what is wrong with your brother's life is not a reason to make your own life and the lives of those around you miserable.
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