Compassion

Compassion, to me, means that you are able to put yourself in another persons shoes who is going through a tough time or situation and see and better understand what they are going through. With this new understanding and insight comes the desire to help this individual through their hard times. Compassion. It is such a simple and beautiful concept, to try and see the world through another persons eyes in order to try and help them through a difficult time. And yet too often, people fail to have compassion and instead are egocentric or just plain indifferent.Throughout my 20 years of life on this planet I have experienced the different extremes of people on the compassion scale. My hockey coach in high school was and still is one of the most in-compassionate people I know. He took a sport that I loved and made it miserable 95% of the time. If anyone on the team ever made a mistake in practice or a game he responded to the mistake with harsh words, swearing and yelling, instead of explaining what mistake was made and how to handle the situation in a better way if it were to arise again. He was unapproachable and I never went to him about any problem or concerns I had, hell I simply avoided talking with the guy completely whenever possible. I still find it troubling that this man is still a coach even though so many parents and students have reported instances of inappropriate behavior because the administers at my school found it "too much work to find and hire"a new coach. Talk about not having compassion for your students and your job! But anyways that is enough on that negative and unpleasant subject.

Thankfully I have been lucky and blessed enough to have encountered far more compassionate people that have effected and impacted in my life in a positive way. It is hard to pick a single teacher that has shown me compassion and made a difference in my life because, as cliche as it may sound, there have been so many. One example is my first grade teacher, Miss S, who believed in me and worked so hard to help me to learn how to read even when I wanted to give up. She taught me that learning is fun and that hard work and practice will pay off. And it did, eventually, although for awhile I was a very frustrated little girl because reading simply did not come easy to me like it did to some of the other kids. I now love to read however and I owe this to her patience and compassion in seeing that reading is hard for some kids.

Throughout my schooling I have been lucky enough to be taught by many other teachers that have shown me compassion and to share all these experiences would take a novel. I am so thankful to these wonderful men and women, for they taught me much more then simply Math English or Reading. They taught me through both implicit and explicit actions about character, about trust and to never stop wondering or questioning the world. I am still being shown this same compassion and being taught these same lessons here at Luther by many of my professors.I am lucky to have not only compassionate teachers in my life but compassionate friends and family members. It is these people that are compassionate, that make life so much more bearable during the potholes and speed bumps of life. These are the people that make me feel special and know my worth in the world, who pick me up when I am down. I am even appreciative to some extent of my hockey coach and the other indifferent people I have dealt with throughout my life. Because lets face it you have to have some crap in your life in order to fully appreciate the sweet smell of fresh apple pie. Mmmmm. As a member of this world I want to strive to show compassion to others, I dont ever want to be the hockey coach. I would much rather impact peoples lives in a positive way.

Two of my favorite quotes:

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these. ~George Washington Carver

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. ~Dalai Lama


Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. ~Plato