The Power in Presence

There are moments in life when the world slows down just enough for us to truly see another human being. Not their mask, not their brave face, not their carefully held-together edges but their tender, aching, overwhelmed truth.

On Friday, I found myself in one of those moments.

A new friend from school reached a breaking point. Life, stress, and emotions she’d been carrying quietly finally spilled over. I could feel her pain not because it triggered my own (the way it once would have), but because I recognized something familiar in her trembling voice. I knew what it feels like to hold everything together until you simply can’t anymore.

But this time… I didn’t collapse into her storm.

I didn’t shrink.

I didn’t feel the old panic that used to rise whenever someone needed me more than I had to give.

Instead, I stayed present.

Grounded.

Soft.

Steady.

I became the woman I needed so many years ago and I offered her the things I once begged the world for:

A safe place to fall.

A heart with no judgment.

Warmth instead of worry.

Grace instead of fixing.

Calm instead of chaos.

I wrapped my arms around her and something magical happened.

She melted.

She breathed.

She let go.

Later she told me it was the best hug she’d ever had safe, genuine, comforting in a way she didn’t know was possible. She called it a core memory.

And in that moment, I realized something profound:

I wasn’t giving from emptiness… I was giving from overflow.

That is the difference healing makes.

This is what presence looks like.

Not rescuing.

Not absorbing.

Not losing yourself in someone else’s emotions.

Presence is simply holding your own ground so someone else can find theirs again.

It’s one of the most beautiful gifts we have as humans.

And my goodness… what a wonderful world it is

when we create space

for each other to be real,

to be messy,

to be held.

May we keep choosing that kind of presence

for ourselves and for one another.

There is so much healing in these simple, human moments.

“Presence is truely when a whisper becomes the loudest voice in the room.”