Empathy is scary. It can be unnerving. You have to literally allow yourself to honestly take in what another person or companion is feeling, experiencing, and understanding. You have to make yourself vulnerable. You have to admit you are not the only one in the room, nor are you the most important. When practicing empathy, a person must set themselves aside and pick up the other's burden and perspective. That requires admitting their burden is as important as yours. And it may require you setting your burden aside to help with theirs. 

So, we don't sometimes. We'll admit we don't understand. We'll say we are sorry or we "feel you", or the like. But in the end, that's a reflective move around the requirement of true empathy. It is not easy to see things from another perspective. The reality of it might just shed light on truths we are not willing to accept or are too stubborn to admit. Admission requires change.

Empathy is the centerpiece at the table of a successful life. Empathy allows all else to happen well. Without empathy there is no communication, trust, and companionship. Because knowing what everyone really wants, and then looking at each want as it is brought forward illuminates the real issues at hand, for both sides.

Without empathy, we're all searching in the dark.