In my mind, compassion is the caring for self and others. Yes, we often forget to be loving and caring to ourselves. Too often we place ourselves last and ignore the warning sign that our intuitive nature is attempting to share. Compassion is a virtue that enables you to feel empathy and concern for another. I do not think of it as sympathy because for me, sympathy has a different connotation. For the short time that I cared for Betty, I was not feeling sorry for her state of affairs or life as it is now but rather I chose to offer her friendship, positive interaction and a sense that joyful possibilities could be hers if she was willing to (in her case) eat properly, walk often and do activities that would strengthen her mind. Those were my concerns then and still are today.
I saw first hand how her mental and physical inactivity
contributed to her overall degenerating quality of life. She was left alone for exceptionally
long periods of time and while she was alone she simply laid in her bed and
vegetated. You do not have to be a
98 and one-half year old person to sink into that state. It unfortunately happens to often to
many people who fall between the cracks of our society. It doesn’t take a government to make
the changes. It simply takes
people who have a genuine sense of caring and sharing; who have compassion.
Sometimes we don’t have the power to help another, but we
can still express compassion and have a sense of sharing and caring because but
for the grace of God, that could be me.
In fact, every time I see someone less fortunate that I, whether it be a
disabled person, a homeless person or someone challenged in someway, I say a
prayer and ask God to give them courage and strength. I may not have the power to give personal assistance and as
with Betty, her family rejected my assistance, but I certainly have the ability
to care and give what little I can.
Often the sharing and caring is in the form of a prayer.
When you are led to believe that your task, your part in any
given situation is complete, I also believe that that is the time to walk away
gracefully and don’t look back.
For me, looking back opens the door to pain—it can be doubt or what if I
could do more—possibly even continue the fight to make your point. None of that
matters; what does matter is for you to move onward and upward as you continue
on your own personal journey. So I
ask you to contemplate the tangled web of your life and see if there is any
room in it for you to express and/or experience compassion?
Joan Marie Ambrose
Author, Creative Writer, Motivational Speaker
- Read from the beginning: Why I Started this Blog
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