Someone coughs incessantly. A child scrapes their knee on the playground. A woman sits on a bench alone with her head down. An elderly person walks across the street stumbling with a cane. Your friend seems unlike her usual self.
“Are you okay?”
The requisite follow up question.
What follows is an empty exchange. One party feigns ok-ness while the other party half listens only enough to satisfy the guilt of apathy.
Dismissed for its mundane simplicity, “Are you okay” can be the line of demarcation. It can be mean the difference between life and death, hope and abyss.
But when these three words are taken for granted, they are rendered powerless, ineffective, meaningless…
When spoken with integrity and compassion, “Are you okay” has the capacity to create opportunity for pausing, to be heard, for perspective, newness, and relief. It is the biggest question that one can ever ask. When taken seriously, it creates space for deep listening. Caring. Truth. Love.
Would you like me to be your coach? Let’s connect: jennifer@startingtodaycoach.com.
Become Unraveled 
One Pingback