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Lisa Simmons contemplates the root of compassion: putting ourselves in someone else's place.

Have you ever heard the phrase, "walking in someone else's shoes?" As I kid I always thought that was funny, how could you walk in someone's shoes? But as an adult, the phrase has begun to ring really true with me because I have begun to realize that we are all laboring with our own problems, worries, faults, and things we are working on. In other words, walking in someone else's shoes means to stop judging each other!

Oh, it begins innocently enough: we see someone having a really bad day and losing their calm and peace and we think, I’ll never be that bad." Or it’s bashing another person’s viewpoints on social media, maybe even calling them out about their opinion. But I would ask you to do this. Put yourself in that person’s shoes. Have you lived their life? Have you experienced the burdens they are struggling with on a daily basis?

We are all very unique individuals; we have millions of variations in our DNA, but one thing we share is the ability to be compassionate. Compassion helps us forgive others when they hurt us. Compassion comes from being able to "walk in someone else’s shoes,” to stop and think maybe that person hasn’t had the positive reinforcement we have received or has experienced a life-changing negative event that can never be changed and they are still reeling from the result.

 

2 friends walking together

 

You know what? It’s hard to be that other person. It’s hard to live their life, but we must grant other people their opinions and ways of doing things out of respect. Of course it would work a whole lot better if they would respect us. It’s hard to smile and not scream when your mother-in-law critiques everything you do with your first newborn child. “Why can she not remember what it was like to be young and nervous?”

It’s hard to laugh off someone’s sarcastic remark about your first Thanksgiving dinner attempt. It’s hard to walk in someone else’s shoes.

 

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We have millions of variations in our DNA, but one thing we share is the ability to be compassionate. #catholicmom

But until we do walk in their shoes, think about what they may be living with on a day to day basis, we’ll keep saying nasty things about them. We’ll keep making insensitive comments on Facebook or not thinking how that other person may perceive us leaving them out. Until we try to see what other people are struggling with in their lives, we’ll never be nice people.

So, let’s begin. Let’s not assume everyone is out to get us; let’s not assume that person who wants to do things their own way is ignoring our help because they don’t like us. Let’s stop assuming everyone has a life just like ours and understands everything we like or don’t like. Let’s try to look at what they are dealing with too and not just expect them to understand what we are dealing with.

Put on those other shoes and walk …

toddler wearing grown-up's shoes

 


Copyright 2021 Lisa Simmons
Images: Canva Pro