Two Ears and a Heart

Boka Tov:
Well I'm up at 0:00 early again.
But that's ok. I have some cleaning to do as well as making some plans for the week.
I'd slept better these past few evenings; no more horror dreams. I believe the turkey helped me sleep better. So I plan to add on my shopping list this week turkey wings and legs for turkey soup.
Yesterday, I met with a friend at Starbucks. I haven't seen him in a while and we we needed to catch up. He's going through a rough period and so we just listened to each other, cried with each other and finally laughed. Because the weather is summer like once again, I ordered the Iced Tea Lemonaide. A first for me. I had it with green tea, since is supposse to be quite healthly.
Well it eas very good and I am going to start making it for home enjoyment.
Amoung the things my buddy David and I talked about yesterday is our words.
Have you ever had in the guise of 'cheering you up' 'giving you an encouraging word' what was really a correction-a sermon- and/or lecture? And you end up feeling worse?
Think Job's friends.
There was once a rightous man named Job.
satan felt Job was rightous because of all of the wealth G-d gave him.
So, knowing Job's heart, G-d allowed (did not cause, allowed) satan to steal his wealth.
Job praised G-d.
So satan came back and claimed it was because Job was still healthy.
G-d once again allowed satan to touch Job, this time it was his health.
Job praised G-d.
Next, satan went after Job's children.
Even Job's wife turned on him.
Job still praised G-d.
So here came three of Job's freinds.
For one week, they sat with him, mourned with Job.
But on the eight day, they blew it.
Their words were of no comfort to Job. In fact, they blamed Job for his troubles. The three would have done better to keep their mouth shut.
In Hospics Care, there is a saying: if you don't know what to say, say nothing.
How often I have caught myself giving pat, spiritual answers, when the person just needed a hug, for me to hold them their hand or find out how they like their Starbucks coffee.
Sometimes, I just need to use my two ears and my heart.