Compassion, not judgment!
“I got a fortune cookie that said, ‘To remember is to understand.’ I have never forgotten it. A good judge remembers what it was like to be a lawyer. A good editor remembers being a writer. A good parent remembers what it was like to be a child.”
Anna Quindlen,
Author and Journalist
Steven Covey has said seek first to understand, then to be understood. Very sage advice in life. Each person comes to a situation with a different perspective that is at times uniquely different than your own. Each person has experiences that have shaped them. Each person has undergone their own kind of hardship or achievement that has led to growth and change. So before you judge another based upon your own life lessons, bring compassion to the table and leave criticism behind. You have your own mountains to climb, your have your own valleys to get through. You have your own blessings to cherish and you have your own life to live. You may be exceedingly fortunate or you may have had more than your share of difficulties. There is no such thing as perfection when determining whether you or others have experienced a life well lived. You and I are all doing our best with the foundations that you and I have built our lives on. Yours is not to judge. Rather, yours is to ensure that in every applicable instance, you carry a heart filled with compassion and empathy as a cornerstone for the way you move forward. You are born into this world to learn and grow. As you grow, you gain wisdom knowing that with love and forgiveness as the primary tools in your arsenal, you can have a positive impact on another’s life. Take a moment to understand this before you act. You have traveled a journey with the intention to be the best person you can be. While you may slip and fall along the way, when you are held in the arms of compassionate connections, your healing as well as the world’s is advanced further. So, in your interactions today, will you take a moment to be a light of compassion in a world so desperate for it by seeking to understand rather than judging yourself or others? Remember that each of us started out as a beautiful little child filled with endless possibilities. Will you move forward today with that in mind and reach out in love?
