Empathy cards.

If you have a sick friend, they need you to love them and support them a little bit more than usual.

Sometimes, though, we get a little wrapped up in our own heads and we

1. don't know what to say to them, or
2. think that we need to give them advice.

Those things may be helpful, depending on your relationship, but just because someone is sick doesn't mean they've stop being themselves or that your relationship has magically changed. 

You can do awesome things to help them, but you can also just let them know you care. 

Emily McDowell made genius empathy cards to say all the things that are difficult to say.

Emily knows of the awkwardness that exists when you want to say something, but don't know what to say. Perhaps you decide a card is the way to go. If you've got a friend with a serious illness, should it be get well soon, which seems trivial, or sympathy, which is usually for when someone has died? 

As a cancer survivor, Emily knew how real this struggle is and how not knowing what to say may prevent you from saying anything at all. 

And from that, a genius line of empathy cards were created. 

Gasp! I hope I've never done this. 

As another friend said, this card, and many of the others would also work for someone who is grieving. 

I do this all the time on a regular Tuesday, but hopefully I don't do this when someone is *actually* going through something!

I can see the market for this being huge. Kudos to Emily for seeing an important, untapped market and making something beautifully appropriate. Go check out her cards. I know I'll be picking up a few of them, myself. 

And if those cards don't say exactly what you need...you can make your own. I spent 12 days over the Christmas break making my own "oh, for f*cks sake" cards for a friend in Canva. She was having a tough time and all the holiday cheer was a little bit overwhelming. Our 12 days of subversive Christmas greetings were some of my favorite memories from Christmas 2014.

Here are a few of my favorites.