Apart

 This week someone I work with withdrew; it was like they shrank deep within themselves and cannot find their way back out. If I think back, I've actually noticed it in many small ways over the last several weeks although it was only recently that I saw it fully. I don't know why and I don't know the person enough to delve into the reasons, it seems rude and invasive to wade in unasked; however I felt inclined to ask them if they were ok and maybe that's the first step towards them opening up; time will tell. People need to have a sense of belonging, it's a simple fact; they need love, to give or receive it. I believe human beings are wired to it, that it's intrinsically part of what makes us human the same as cognitive thought, and that extends also to the sense of belonging and of being made to feel like we belong and to coexist alongside other human beings. If those needs are left unrequited or simply not present functioning normally, as a normal human, breaks down and we fall apart. I see that in the person I mention. They seem broken, it's almost like I can see the parts of them falling away - that they're coming apart. It's a vacant stare, a numbness almost and the way they seem to be collapsing down upon themselves. It's an abject sadness a sickness of the soul perhaps, a darkness. I don't know what to do. I want help but don't know how. I feel so apart from feelings like that and yet linked somehow through the emotion it brings to me and I wish I knew how to help her.