Engaging the abyss: a mis-take of opportunity?

There are occasions when persons find themselves faced with a difficult choice to be with one or more persons as they live intense experiences that often involve pain and suffering. It is proposed in this column that the experience of choosing to be with others during these times calls forth a risking of self. That fleeting moment when people choose to engage with others or to turn away from that opportunity is explored through personal experience and as portrayed in poetry and film. The authors use the metaphor of an abyss to explore the lived experience of risking being with the truth of human connectedness. It is suggested that nurses know the abyss and that they have opportunities to be with persons as they live truth in human becoming.