I talked with my friend, Kenny Moore, today. He’s a gifted writer and speaker, a keen observer of life, with the humor of Will Rogers and the compassion of Mother Teresa.

Kenny sends out a quarterly article, about what he’s discovering in the corporate world, as Corporate Ombudsman and Human Resources Director at a New York City Fortune 500 company. He is also a former monk and the author of the best-selling business book, The CEO and The Monk.

His latest spring article has a particulary poignant section:

"I recently had an employee stop by my office and share that his wife is dying of cancer. In the face of pending death, my business skills left little to offer. As much as I wanted, there was no quick fix, no solution, no Six Sigma model to pursue.  I felt ill-equipped.

The experience left me wondering: in the face of life’s mystery, perhaps what is needed isn’t sharing our strength … but our weakness. Not giving remedy and solution, but being present to the pain and suffering of another. Our natural instinct is to find something we can do. What is really needed is for us to simply be. It’s a humbling stance of being present to another person’s pain. Our gift resides in offering support to someone in the face of a harsh reality that isn’t going to be resolved. When my co-worker confronted me with the mystery of the human condition, I was being invited to become available not from a position of strength, but from one of weakness."

I resonate with Kenny’s comments. It speaks to living with grace, to accept what is, and in the process, to simply be. Not easy to do in this day and age. To the extent that we can be with someone else’s suffering and pain, without attempting to fix, determines the strength of our connection as human beings.

BTW–if you’d like to be on Kenny’s mailing list, or just connect with him, his email is kennythemonk@yahoo.com.