Compassion for others creates connectedness. When we can begin looking at everyone with more compassion, we then realize that we are all on this planet together. I think many people forget that the world doesn't revolve around them or their schedule. We all rise to the same sun and fall asleep under the same moon.
When we were kids, we were taught that strangers were to be feared, avoided, distrusted. "Don't talk to strangers" translated to "Strangers are bad". People aren't strangers to be avoided or faceless robots. They are single moms, someone's grandpa, a little girls' daddy, your new best friend, a lonely man without a home or a family, maybe an elderly woman who has to go back to work after she thought she had gotten to retire. Everyone is connected in some way. Everyone has a story, too. I really became aware of this in Los Angeles. In the vast array of people, I had to find a way to cope with the mass of traffic and crowds. I had to find a way to see this giant maze as something more personal. Even the simple act of letting someone in front of you at the grocery store who has less in their basket than you do is a first step in the right direction of compassion and understanding. If any of you have driven in a big city, we all know how frustrating it can be when other drivers don't let us in their lane, cut us off, etc merely out of principal. Dallas drivers are notorious for this kind of behavior. We have probably done this before, too. Don't allow yourself to do this. This behavior creates anger and only perpetuates the cycle. Again, we must remember, we are all in this crazy, beautiful, confusing, magnificent, cruel world together. Once we realize that everyone has that right, we won't feel so entitled to being the center of the universe.
When we were kids, we were taught that strangers were to be feared, avoided, distrusted. "Don't talk to strangers" translated to "Strangers are bad". People aren't strangers to be avoided or faceless robots. They are single moms, someone's grandpa, a little girls' daddy, your new best friend, a lonely man without a home or a family, maybe an elderly woman who has to go back to work after she thought she had gotten to retire. Everyone is connected in some way. Everyone has a story, too. I really became aware of this in Los Angeles. In the vast array of people, I had to find a way to cope with the mass of traffic and crowds. I had to find a way to see this giant maze as something more personal. Even the simple act of letting someone in front of you at the grocery store who has less in their basket than you do is a first step in the right direction of compassion and understanding. If any of you have driven in a big city, we all know how frustrating it can be when other drivers don't let us in their lane, cut us off, etc merely out of principal. Dallas drivers are notorious for this kind of behavior. We have probably done this before, too. Don't allow yourself to do this. This behavior creates anger and only perpetuates the cycle. Again, we must remember, we are all in this crazy, beautiful, confusing, magnificent, cruel world together. Once we realize that everyone has that right, we won't feel so entitled to being the center of the universe.
