There’s that old story of the footprints in the sand. One set belongs to you, the other to Jesus. In your darkest moments, there’s only one set because he carried you. That’s empathy in its purest form — stepping in, taking the full weight of someone else’s struggle.
But what if there are two sets of footprints all the way through? That’s compassion — not carrying, not abandoning, but walking side by side, present in the storm.
Neither way is wrong. The real question is: where are you in your relationships right now?
Are you so entrenched in being the footprints in someone else’s path that you don’t have to face your own? Is savior mode so important because it looks redeeming… or because it allows deflection? Are you judging others because you need to fix them? Because you’re avoiding your own trenches? Or are you shining purely — a light that touches everyone around you without discrimination?
Sometimes empathy becomes exhaustion. Sometimes compassion becomes silence. Sometimes our “savior complex” makes it impossible to just walk beside someone and let them make their choices, their mistakes, their own way out.
I know those trenches. When you’re in them, they feel endless, heavy, impossible. You’re worn down to nothing, and the smallest flicker of light feels like salvation. You don’t even expect to be rescued — just the chance to sit at the fringes of the lighthouse beam is enough.
That’s why I can’t condemn those who stumble toward the light, moth-like and trembling. I know what it means to find the tiniest flashlight and put one exhausted foot in front of the other, shuddering at every sound, just hoping the darkness won’t swallow me whole again.
And here’s where duality comes in. We love to paint the world in absolutes:dark versus light,fear versus truth,pain versus healing.
But it’s never that simple. Life is not a battlefield of one against the other — it’s a coin with two sides. Without dark, there is no light. Without pain, there is no healing. Without fear, truth never becomes courage.
So although I’m done carrying others, I am not done caring. I’m willing to be Pooh to someone’s Eeyore — to sit, to listen, to share a hot meal, to talk if they’re interested. If you’re camped outside my lighthouse, I won’t drag you inside, but I’ll keep the beam steady so you know where to look.
Because the work isn’t in fixing others or fixing myself. The work is in learning to enjoy duality — to see both sides of the coin, and to honor them for what they are. My light doesn’t erase the dark. My compassion doesn’t mean I carry your weight. It means I walk with you in the knowing that both shadow and flame are part of the path.
So I ask you:
Where are your footprints today?
Are you carrying?
Are you walking beside?
Or are you standing in your lighthouse, steady, shining in all directions, honoring both sides of the coin?
If you’re ready to keep exploring your own inner world — to open up to the duality within and remember the sovereignty you already carry — I created The Sovereign Self Booklet + Companion Workbook as a guide for that journey.
A spiral of remembrance. Reflections and activations to anchor your light. A companion to walk beside you as you step deeper into your own sovereignty.
Begin your journey here