Compassion

Whenever I think of compassion, my thoughts always turn to the greats like Mother Theresa or Father Damien. I ask myself if it's possible to have so much compassion that I could dedicate my whole life to a cause like they did. Their compassion was such that I believe they must have been sent from God. I believe we're all sent by God to fulfill some purpose, but through our own free will, we choose to become lesser men (or women). Trust me, I'm no saint, and I don't know whether I'll find my true purpose in life before I die or not, but at least I'm willing to examine my talents to try to find that which continues to elude me.

Becoming truly compassionate sounds easy, but it certainly is not. Even at Christmas time, arguably the most compassionate season of the year, I find myself getting so caught up in the commercialism that I drop the ball on all of the remarkable things I was planning on doing for others this year. Oh sure, I give my spare change to the guy outside the department store ringing a bell with his red kettle. I might even offer up a five or ten spot for a homeless man to get himself a decent meal. But these few and far between acts of kindness do not represent compassion at the level that Mother Theresa and Father Damien possessed. They gave of themselves 24/7/365 and never with a thought or a care that they were going to be repaid somehow. There's a saying that gets tossed around quite a bit at Dream Outfitters that I'd like to think we all try to live our lives by, and it is simply this, “Do Something For Someone Today, With The KNOWING That There Is No Possible Way For Them To Ever Repay You.”

We all try to be as good as we possibly can (well, most of us), and while we may never reach the level of perfection of a true saint, we can live a better life today than we did yesterday. We can live better lives by becoming more compassionate to the plight of others. Others less fortunate whom we come across during the course of our day. Merriam-Webster defines compassion as the sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it. The key here is the last part, the desire to alleviate it. It's great that we feel compassionate, but even greater when we can actually participate, in a small way, to relieve the pain that we witness. Pain and suffering and loneliness is all around us. It doesn't take much to toss someone a smile instead of just hurrying on our way. That costs nothing. Let's all try to be a little more compassionte this year than we have in the past. I know you will become a better person for it.