We Do Not Live in Vain

Emily Dickinson provides clarity

Emily Dickinson penned a poem that speaks to me on so many levels. You are all likely familiar with it as well.

If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain; If I can ease one life the aching, Or cool one pain, Or help one fainting robin Unto his nest again, I shall not live in vain.

So often, we may feel lost, as if our life has no purpose, as if we don’t matter in the grand scheme of things, but this poem is a reminder that the smallest things can make the biggest difference.

Emily Dickinson did not have an easy life. There were years she suffered through that were plagued by one death after another, of the people who mattered to her, and she struggled mightily under the weight of her grief.

She was the main caregiver for her bedridden mother for an extended period of time, and that can weigh heavily on a person’s mental health.

She became reclusive in her later years, at times unwilling to even open the door to have a conversation with visitors face-to-face, choosing instead to speak through the barrier she kept in place.

She eventually died at the age of 55, from Bright’s disease, which affected kidney function.

At the time of her death, she had been reclusive for fifteen years.

She was clearly struggling to make sense of the world.

There were likely times she questioned her very existence.

But here we are, almost one hundred forty years after her death, and she is still making a difference.

This poem, I think, shows how sensitive she could be, wanting to ease the pain of other people, and writing about the importance of doing so. Not only that, but the robin himself seemed deserving of her compassion. She clearly had a loving heart.

Whenever I read this poem, it reminds me what a beautiful thing it is to focus on ways we can help other people.

There will always be hard days.

There will be times when each of us questions why we are here or why we are suffering, or even if our life makes a difference at all.

But these few lines, penned so eloquently, so very many years ago, during a time when nothing in the day-to-day resembled the way we live now, is a reminder that we can all take to heart.

The way they lived their lives was different in almost every way from the way we live ours today.

But the most important thing has not changed.

If we can help one person.

If we can shoulder the weight of one weary soul who needs it, to give them enough of a break that they can regain their strength and keep trying, we are not living in vain.

When you see an opportunity, no matter how small, to help a fellow human, take that step.

Make that choice.

You will not have lived in vain.

Peace and love, y’all. ❤

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