Until you understand their pain, you will never understand the person. Without such understanding, the truth is inevitably distorted, and our expectations of others are flawed from the very beginning.
Understanding another’s pain is itself a flawed concept. To truly know pain you must own it. No matter their best intentions, no one else will ever know exactly how you feel. But what needs to be understood is that there is pain in all of us, the emotional dents and dings collected on life’s journey.
We judge others by what we see in front of us. Actions and attitudes not meeting our expectations are often met with harshness and disdain. A logical response in the mind of many. But what if we were to turn a blind eye to what we think we see in front of us, instead looking deeper and beyond the logical and seeing another in all their entirety, including the invisible emotional scars which reside in all of us?
Sometimes logic gets in the way of compassion.
People aren’t born angry, hurt, lonely, or confused. Life sort of makes us this way. I’m not one for excuses, but going through life angry, hurt, lonely, or confused has to have an impact on how you go through life. When we step back and acknowledge the entire person, scars included, our initial response to those not meeting the standards of behavior we impose on them is far more compassionate and understanding, even if logic “justifies” a more ballistic response.
Make no mistake, we are all to be held accountable for our actions. But we are also to be held equally accountable for our reactions as well.
Just because God gave us two middle fingers doesn’t mean we have to use them.
It’s a great day to be you!
Peter Mis LivingHalfFull.com 