Here’s what Maleva, the old gypsy woman in The Wolf Man, says: “Don’t oppose it and don’t run away from it. Don’t try to fix it and don’t encourage it. Don’t blame it and don’t praise it. Don’t refuse to know it and don’t rush towards it with your arms open. Tell it the way it walks is thorny through no fault of its own.”

Sympathy means to suffer with. Part of that is the willingness to suffer. The other part is the willingness to sit with something just the way it is.

Acceptance is often the first step of change. If this seems strange, watch the old movie again. Notice how each time Maleva recites her blessing the terrible wolf man changes into a human being.