Connection and armour

Lost people everywhere. As you start to get to know someone, and they loosen their protective armour even just a little, you see the loss and hurt they carry with them.

It's not possible to be human in this world and not accumulate your share of woes. It IS possible to keep the armour tight, and function and go about your everyday life, and never show the bewildered child to anyone else.

And yet the true connection arises when we lift the armour, trusting that the other person WON'T deliver a fatal blow.

No cure, but a salve in the connection. Here is another person, just like me, coping as best they can, just like me, carrying their hurts and working to rise above them, just like me.

And connection feels something like prayer, something like thankfulness.