To feel with, not for.
To imagine what it might feel like, not say that you can’t imagine.
To identify with the emotion underneath the experience, not to have gone through the exact same experience.
To ask how someone feels, not walk a mile in their shoes (because you can’t).
To sit beside, not across or above.
To seek to understand, not to know exactly.
To witness someone’s lived experience, not to tell them it is wrong.
To be with, not take on.
Empathy doesn’t mean I take on your emotions or fix them or agree with them.
Empathy simply means to love well.
It requires boundaries, a lot of them.
It also requires vulnerability.
I must know and recognize emotions within me to see them and know them within you.
To be in it with you.
And now we are in it together, walking one another through it and home.