Two quotes that essentially say the same thing: "The heart sees better than the eye." -- Jewish proverb. This echoes a line from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in "The Little Prince," where he writes: "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye."
These both fit right in with one of our core beliefs around here, as expressed by Paul Tillich: "The first duty of love is to listen."
When it comes to "listening" to combat veterans with PTSD in our lives, let's hope we do it with love, compassion, and empathy -- even if they can't, or won't, express what's really on their minds. Communication is based on trust, and comes in time. Patience and keeping the right intention are both important. Social support is known to be a preventative for PTSD (how cool is that?!) and even after diagnosis, trust and communication go quite a way towards helping the veteran bridge the perceived gap between their life before, and their life after, PTSD.
Editor's note: For more articles, including ones written by veterans, about communication skills, click here.
