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How Can You Love Someone Intentionally Today (LOVE SIT)?
And why bother?
More than 21 million (8 percent) of American adults and 3.7 million (15 percent) of youth ages 12–17 suffer from depression each year ().
Depressed, sad, worried, down, anxious, empty, lonely, therapy, counseling, medicine, diagnosis, chronic, and will-it-ever-get-better are the words I am hearing more consistently and reading much more frequently.
The people closest to me are breaking up, getting divorced, single, lonely, chronically ill, suffering from PTSD, overworked, unemployed, drowning silently or constantly complaining, and experiencing physical symptoms for which doctors have no cause other than stress and depression.
The strangers I encounter during my daily commute are no different. The cries and calls for help are blaring everywhere. If we only pause for a moment, get off our devices, and listen to the throngs of voices around us, we hear, see, and feel others’ pain.
Some weeks ago, I observed a young girl, Sephora, trying to pay her fare on a crowded bus, but the reader was not working. Through our exchange and subsequent encounters, we now have a friendship, joy in seeing each other, and exchanges full of love in brief hugs whenever we see each other (Her mom has approved).
