Random Thoughts on Kindness and Compassion

“Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?”
-Henry David Thoreau
In January a friend of mine lost her husband quite suddenly to cancer. He was a great father and husband and left behind my friend and their four children. It is really hard to imagine losing your spouse, your best friend. She is sad and hurting but a really amazing mom. She holds it together amazingly well despite her pain. In April my nephew passed away. He was only 16 and it was very unexpected. As you can imagine it has been very devastating for the entire family. And it hard as it has been for all of us our grief is only but a fraction that my sister and brother in law are feeling. I just wish I could make them feel better. It is really hard to see them hurting.

I really cannot imagine the pain my friend and sister & brother in law are feeling. It is very hard to wrap my mind around that kind of grief. I am not lying when I say that I think about both these families daily. It is very bizarre that you got about your day...business as usual and meanwhile others are having to endure the most traumatic of events.

I used to work with this gal that everyone thought was so rude. People would talk about her behind her back. Come to find out, she was living with domestic violence. At one point I had a coworker that always seemed distracted. People would talk about her because they felt like they had to pick up her slack. Turns out, she was dealing with a teenage daughter addicted to heroin. I mean, you just never know what someone else is going through.

Everyone has different struggles and we live in this society of go-go-go and busy-busy-busy. Everyone always seems to be in such a hurry and annoyed. People just seem to lack compassion these days. We should all stop once and a while and remember that people have different struggles in their lives and we should try to keep that in mind at all times. It would not hurt us to be a little kinder to each other and have some more compassion.

I have been thinking about this a lot lately but I really have not been able to put it into words. I came across the following video on Facebook it really spoke to me. I instantly thought of my sister & brother in law and my friend.



I know I am kind of all over the place with this post. I guess my point is to be kind to each other. You just never know what the person next to you is dealing with. Kindness is always free and just takes a second.