everyone is damaged.

Posted bycasey coombsPosted inToo lazy to label.

LOOOVE

This photo was taken in San Francisco over two years ago.

So much has changed since this moment.

Three and a half babies have been added, one has been taken away.

All of us have been hurt and damaged in so many different ways since that night, and when I think about just how much…

I’d rather not think about it.

Sure, we “know” each other on the Internet. We know that she lost a baby, she lost a child, she lost a pregnancy, she lost a best friend, she lost a sister, she lost a husband, he lost a wife, her dad may die any day and that she just received a diagnosis of cancer. For the most part we handle each other with kid gloves. But all these “shes” that live in your computer also have real lives. They are the frustrated mom at the mall, the grumpy lady in the checkout line at the grocery store, the impatient woman at the pediatricians office, the jerk that cuts you off in traffic.

It’s funny that we can see and accept the scars and the wounds of our virtual friends online but sometimes in real life we are unable to give the people around us the benefit of the doubt.

If five people in one picture who were practically strangers two years ago have had so much happen to them since the photo was taken?

It’s safe to say every single person out there is nursing some sort of wound. Be it fresh, freshly healed or a deep painful scar.

I wish we could all act in a way that nurtured the broken hearts around us instead of assuming that most hearts are cold and hard.

Please take better care of each other. We are all so much more alike than we are different.

85 thoughts on “everyone is damaged.”

  11. It’s like we walk around on mute. Thanks for the reminder to turn up the volume a little. Everyone has a story. Everyone.

    p.s. used/credited your Maggie/Ann photo on listentoyourmothershow.com today. THANK YOU OVER AND OVER!

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  12. Isn’t that the truth? I think it’s something that comes with age. We come to realize that even though we might have once thought that we were being singled out for some sort of horrible crime, everyone, in fact, has something hard. Varying degrees, of course, but something.

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  13. I try to remind myself that we can’t know what private battles people are fighting. It isn’t always easy to remember. Thank you for the reminder.

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  14. I just really really like you more and more all the time.

    It’s the truth. So often, I start to get caught up in asking “why is that person such a jerk?” when I feel wronged or mistreated somehow. And I’ve been trying to practice reminding myself of the word “wounded.” We really are all so wounded and we live out of that sometimes. And then we need each other to heal so we just HAVE to be a little more understanding.

    All that to say…”yeah, what you said.”

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  19. When I think of all I have lost since this picture was taken (friends, a baby, family) and all I’ve gained (a son, new friends) it makes my head spin. And to look at that picture and know of everyone elses losses and gains and it takes my breath away. We have all been thru so much. Everyone has.

    Everyone has a story. Everyone hurts. Be kind. I couldn’t have said it as well as you did, Casey.

    I love ya.

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  22. *standing ovation*

    As I said earlier, I so admire your ability to be calm & level-headed. You are such a loving, generous human being: I’m proud to “know” you. Thank you for helping me remember that everyone – friend or not, known or otherwise – is going through stuff, too. ❤

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  30. Required reading. Can this please be printed on the front page (home page) of the New York Times. I needed to read this. Pretty sure the entire world needs to read it, too.
    Thanks!!

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  39. Wow, just thinking about what you said about how much has changed in each of your lives since then, really spoke to me.

    And the reminder to treat each other kindly is much needed in our world today. Thank you.

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  47. Amen.

    That is one thing we pray each day where I work – that we would see beyond the masks that people are wearing to the hurts beneath, and that we would be able to see as God sees, to hear as God hears and to love as God loves.

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