If I could ask for more of one specific character quality, I would ask for compassion.

If I could ask for more of one specific character quality, I would ask for compassion.⠀

I so easily get caught up in my own world, missing out on opportunities for true connection because I’m worried about what I can get out of the people I love...always wanting things to work out in such a way that it will benefit me.⠀

And in turn, I often find myself caught up in what I can do for other people. When someone I love is suffering, I tend to get lost in my own thoughts about what I can contribute to their situation, how I can cure them or find a quick fix for their suffering…instead of just being present with them in it.⠀

True compassion is to simply sit in solidarity with people…to be present and acutely aware of our humanity.⠀

Why is that so hard?⠀

To just see other people and myself as simply human, not as who I wish they were, or even who I think they are because of my colored judgment.⠀

Compassion leaves no room for judgment. There’s no more measuring the value of my relationships based on a scoreboard of rights and wrongs. The awareness of my own shortcomings and faults leaves me so enamored by the mercy of God that I no longer have the desire to judge others.

Compassion allows me to be grateful for both God’s mercy and the mercy of others…and that we have each other to walk through this difficult life with.⠀

Compassion reminds me that if I have struggles, surely those that I love are struggling, too. It reminds me that my job is not to make their burdens even heavier by reminding them of their faults, but quite the opposite. My job is to lighten their load by being less focused on my own anger or hurt and more focused on how they could be suffering.

Compassion gives me a tender heart that is quick to forgive, quick to listen, and willing to remaining in steadfast solidarity with others and their suffering.⠀

Compassion allows me to measure my relationships based on our shared humanity…on how miraculous it is that we get to share these moments of our lives together. Because they only happen once, after all.⠀

So yeah, if I could choose something, I’d choose compassion. :)

Love & Peace,
Haley