Comfort is gained from Comforting:

There was a man who had been abused terribly by his parents all of his life. He had done a lot of healing over the course of his life and, while what he experienced was long in the past, it still affected him greatly. He considered himself as doing much better, knew that others have experienced much more or were still experiencing their pains. This man was Catholic and devout. He was not wealthy but was not poor either. One day, walking down the busy street of his city, he smiled at people as they passed him hurriedly. They paid him little attention but he didn’t mind. He figured that if he could make their days better, it was worth the silly looks and the grimaces. And so, seeing some many steps away from him, a woman, huddled on the curbside, clutching her knees in front of her chest, he noticed that she held a sign in her hands. She was still far off, so he could not see the sign but as he neared her, the letters on it grew larger and clearer. The sign said simply that she had been abused and was homeless now. As the man approached her, he asked her if he could sit next to her. She anxiously said it was alright after assessing his sincerity. Sitting slowly, he asked her her name and held out his hand gently. She took it with hesitation and wouldn’t make eye contact. He began to tell her briefly, his own story. She fidgeted a lot as he told it. But after he stopped speaking, a light of hope entered her eyes. And however briefly that he had known her, this look he had not seen. It warmed his heart. This woman was eager to know someone cared, someone desired to get to know her for her. As though she had known him all of her life, the woman then began to tell him her story. She shed tears as she expressed the pain and hurt of her childhood, which led to her story of how she left her abusive husband. As she spoke, he could see the fire in her heart kindle. Her words, which began very slow, sluggish and uncertain, picked up speed and passion, practically gasping for breath as she narrated the pains she was experiencing. She only needed, only wanted, ever, someone to listen. The man held out his hand as she stopped speaking and she took it and started to cry. “I don’t know you. I don’t know why I’m telling you all of this,” she cried. He smiled and said softly, “We’ve all been through a lot. Some more than others. Others experience things at different times in their lives. Regardless of when we experience that hurt, what we endure, we all need to know someone cares; we all need to know someone wants to listen, genuinely listen and love us without expecting anything in return.” She smiled as she stared into his eyes. He returned the smile and reached into his pocket. From it, he withdrew a piece of paper onto which he wrote his phone number, telling her to call him whenever she wanted. Reaching into his pocket a second time, he withdrew his wallet and took from it, two hundred dollars. Giving it to her, he said, “I want you to get a room at the motel nearby. Get some food.” He watched her as she broke down in tears and questioned why he was doing it. “I believe in you,” he said. “Like people believed in me when I needed help.” She reached her arms around him and hugged him. “Thank you,” she said. They departed and he watched as she entered into the nearest motel. When he returned to the same motel a couple of days later, he found her. She was just getting ready to leave when he entered. “I want you to come with me,” he said. He took her to the hair salon, the clothing store and then to an employment agency. Afterwards, he invited her to stay at his place. She said she couldn’t impose and insisted. So he brought her to a nearby city shelter where she would be able to get on her feet again. “Things get better,” he said. “You really believe that?” she asked. “Of course,” he said with certainty. - From my Book Fables of Good Will.