Codependents aren't crazier or sicker than alcoholics. But, they hurt as much or more.

Feeling hurt does not have to be so frightening. We do not have to work so hard to avoid it. While hurt feelings aren't as much fun as feeling happy, they are, still, just feelings.

Sometimes when we meet other people—and even after we've gotten to know them—all we see is the tip of the iceberg when we look at their lives. We don't understand the things that are driving them, the unresolved issues from their pasts, and the depth of pain they're in now.

Yes, we have the right to be mad at a sick person. We didn't ask for the problem. Although the ideal feeling is compassion, we probably won't feel this until we deal with our anger.

We long to find someone who has been where we've been, who shares our fragile places, who sees our sunsets with the same shades of blue. Soul mates. They somehow validate the depth of our experiences.

Paul didn't just see emotions. He saw the need they represented.

Sometimes all you could do for the suffering was to make sure they knew someone was suffering right there with them. Someone who had also felt stricken, and smitten, and afflicted.

Commitment to God. From the moment we began to work together, Beth and I discovered a similar commitment. We share a passion for the Word of God and for people—especially for people with hurts.

When we meet people flesh to flesh we meet people mess to mess.

It's because a country-western song can start you out at a family picnic eating buttermilk-fried chicken and watermelon on your great-grandmother's quilt, with butterflies flitting about, and before it ends, your daddy's gone to prison and your momma's run off with the preacher and your little brother's blowing butterflies to dust with a BB gun.

No other human can climb down our throats like a spelunker and hack through our trachea and try on our hearts and see how they feel. One mortal cannot fully comprehend how another operates from within.

The downside of human closeness is that, to the degree you have loved their presence, you grieve their loss. Amanda