Compassion

Compassion makes up for many flaws.  You could be an average doctor, yet if you have compassion it can more than make up for this flow.  You could be just an average respiratory therapist, but the fact you have compassion can more than make up for this flow.

Compassion is a funny thing, because sometimes you see the results and sometimes you don't.  Yet more often than not, the person with compassion comes out ahead of the pack. This is the person most people like, and the person most people will go to for advice, mainly because this person is usually the most approachable.

A compassionate therapist is not the one who gets annoyed because a patient with dementia is being annoyingly confusing.  A compassionate therapist is the one who goes out of his way to hold the patient's hand, and comfort her.  He is the one who will go out of his way to get a glass of water or a pop.

And usually these acts of compassion go without notice.  Yet it doesn't matter, because compassion makes the world a better place, and it can also make your world a better place.

Heed the words of St. Francis: "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy."

It doesn't take much to be compassionate.  In fact, as there have been those who have been compassionate to you, you can pay it forward by being compassionate to the next person. In this way, compassion can be an endless cycle of joy in the world.

By paying compassion forward, you may receive it back ten-fold in the future. When you go out of your way to express compassion to one person, that person will share what you did and you will have ten people being compassionate to you in return.

Compassion is not judging, and it's not getting angry.  Compassion is showing that you care, or having empathy, for the people around you  Compassion is pity and concern for the people around you.  Compassion is caring how people might be feeling, and using a soothing voice, or a caring touch, to provide for the needs of another person who might be in need.

You may not be popular.  You may receive no thank or recognition other than an occasional smile. Yet knowing that you are a compassionate person may, and knowing that others are compassionate toward you, is all that a humble person needs.