Thursday Thoughts...

“Empathy is sometimes just a glance. Because in a glance, one can convey ‘I get what you’re feeling. I’m not judging you. I’m here with you.’” 

Brené Brown

Empathy is such an important virtue or characteristic or expression. I'm never really sure how best to describe it, but it is an important part of being human, and of being kind.

It possibly defies proper  definition because it appears in so many guises.  Empathy can be sitting in silence. As Brene Brown says - it can be a glance. Empathy can be the right words, or reflecting back to somebody that you recognise their sorrow, their pain, even if you don't fully experience it.

Empathy can simply be acknowledging that you walk a different path to others and that your experience is not their experience. It can be making sure that somebody feels heard and not judged. It might be shedding tears with somebody. It might be sending a small gift or token that touches a person heart and let's them know you are thinking of them at a time when they are struggling.

So many ways it can be expressed, and I am ever so glad that it does get expressed. Sometimes I do it well, sometimes I don't, and sometimes I forget to make it a focus of an interaction I might not be understanding. But is a great gift that enhances us all.

We have completed the monthly search for the rainbow with Jennifer and Julie, and are now underway looking for other colours. This month is brown and here are a bunch of daily words, and even tho you can't see it clearly I am sure empathy is in there somewhere.