...let everyone be swift to hear; slow to speak; slow to wrath. (James 1:19)

Rabbi Harold S. Kushner writes in When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough: A business associate of my father’s died under particularly tragic circumstances, and I accompanied my father to the funeral. The man’s widow and children were surrounded by clergy and psychiatrists trying to ease their grief and pain and make them feel better, but nothing seemed to help. They knew all the right words but nothing seemed to make an impact. They were beyond being comforted. The widow kept saying, “You’re right, I know you’re right, but it doesn’t make any difference.”

Then a man walked in-a big, burly man in his eighties who was a legend in the toy and game industry. He had come to this country illiterate and penniless and had built up and immensely popular and successful company. He was known as a hard bargainer, a ruthless competitor. Despite his success, he had never learned to read and write...He had been sick recently, and his face and walk clearly showed it. Be he walked over to the widow and started to cry, and she cried with him, and you could feel the atmosphere in the room change. This man who had never read a book in his life spoke the language of the heart and held the key that opened the gates of comfort and solace where learned doctors and clergy could not.”

Compassionate Creator, may our hearts be always open to the language of the heart that we might lift others from their sadness and grief!