I've been absent because I've been spending a lot of time with a friend who has had a death in his family. I feel stretched thin, tired. My job as a friend is to help my good friend carry his burden, to be a witness to his grieving in a way that his family should have been. I'm tired. I'm sad. But his sadness is not mine. I carry it because we must be there for each other. Because I love him. It leaves me quickly because it is not mine. But I think of him, I worry for him. I treasure my friend