When you have nothing to offer but one thing

Over the past two years, the more I have learned about myself and about life, the more I have realized how little I know. I know it is a cliche but most cliches exist for a reason. When a loved one is facing a crisis or a challenge, the first reaction is to offer some practical advice. Sometimes, the practical advice comes from personal experience of what has worked for you but more often than not, it is a hypothesis of what you think might work if you were in an identical situation. I now find myself doing less and less of that. What has worked for me may not work for the other person because no two people or situations are alike. So, more often than not, I feel like all I have to offer is love and empathy. It is not a helpless feeling but a tremendously humbling feeling. The desire to fix everything and everyone was never very strong in me, and now it has weakened further. Is that a cop-out? Of course, some circumstances call for decisive intervention. Friends have often intervened in my life to help me avoid potentially damaging situations. When you intervene there is often the worry that you are wrong and your intervention might damage your relationship with that person. But, can you stop thinking of yourself and do what's best for that person in that moment? Currently, I don't feel the confidence to be able to intervene with conviction. Hopefully, that will change with time.