Standing on the threshold of what is, and what is still to come, can be uncomfortable. The art of this work sits firmly within this threshold. Ram Dass, a very excellent teacher & therapist (though discredited for his work with substances back in the day), describes how we can be cold fish when we withdraw from the turmoil of the work and the witnessing we do, before getting dragged back into the drama of that turmoil where we feel overwhelmed. We then pull back he says, to get distance, before feeling too much like a cold fish and returning into the mires of the suffering.

It’s getting this balance right, he says, that makes the difference – when we get this balance right, we no longer feel like that cold fish, but nor do we suffer for the pain of other peoples’ circumstances – and then we are who we are, and finding this balance becomes a simple and natural part of who we are.