On Facebook lately I have been posting what I like to call: What you missed in Kindergarten. It's a little lesson for those of you out there who forgot critical teachings such as:
- Treat others as you wish to be treated
- Keep your hands to yourself
- Clean up your messes
Today, I'm going to bring one of these great lectures to all of you. And this one is called:
Compassion.
Compassion is a feeling of wanting to help someone who is sick, hungry, in trouble, etc.
Read that back please. Soak it in. Really applies to current happenings in the world doesn't it?
I was raised to have deep compassion for others. As much as I can be a bit cold and dead inside - I'm ultimately nursing a bleeding heart. I want to help people. Except for spiders, spiders can all be crushed and killed.
As a kid I remember standing up to bullies. As an adult I give time and money to helping those who don't have what I have. I'm that way because I learned it from my parents. The best lesson I have ever learned from my parents is to leave things better than you received them. That includes the people you meet.
Compassion extends well beyond charity. Compassion means having love and acceptance for those who are different. And quite frankly, I'm not really sure what two people are the same, so we are ALL different.
In America today, we have a leader who encourages hate. He is the opposite of a compassionate human being and it has only made me want to be more compassionate. He makes me want to stand up for those being oppressed and say not today Satan - you don't get to do this to other people.
Compassion is love. Compassion is kindness. It's holding your hand out to stand by those who need an extra hand. It's stopping yourself before you say something cruel. It's spending time correcting those who give out hate. Compassion is realizing the world is bigger than you.
My challenge to you is to be more patient. Be more open. Spend time committing your efforts to compassion and bettering the world now so that we can leave it in a better place for the future. Compassion is having the courage to stand up to those who don't have compassion and say I choose to treat others as I wish to be treated and I choose to leave a legacy of empathy for future generations to come.
Class dismissed.