February 20, 2015, more than 1,000 bloggers from around the world have
pledged to write about compassion. The movement labeled #1000Speak.
Today I am one of those strong voices with a message about what it means
to be compassionate on the special needs journey.
ღ¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨ ღ Compassion ღ¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨` ღ
is defined as "sympathetic
pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others." In text
compassion feels less powerful than it really is. It has the power to
offer sensitivity, warmth, tenderness and above all else comfort to
those fighting heavy battles. The greatest gift compassion can offer us
is genuine love to another human being.
I'd like to think that
compassion can grow into something tremendously beautiful. And once
compassion is born in someone it has a tendency to spread, as if
pollinating great kindness. I am raising compassion. His name is
Luke. He's just shy of his fourth birthday and is a younger sibling to a
severely disabled older brother. Noah, suffered a catastrophic brain injury at birth and at
age six cannot walk, talk, crawl, sit, or self-feed. He is completely
dependent upon round the clock care and those around him for help.
Luke at his tender age in his own precious way, recognizes Noah's
limitations. But yearns to interact with his brother just as any
siblings would engage with each other.
He'll try to spoon feed
his older brother if I turn my back for a moment, he'll try to soothe
him by talking to Noah in a monster voice, and pick out the clothes he
thinks his brother would want to wear, often times declaring the clothes
I have set out are "the ones Noah doesn't like." He'll put a baseball mitt
on his brother's hand and insert the ball as if to simulate they are
playing together, and adjust his IPad when Noah needs a new application
to entertain himself with. He holds his hands while his father gives
Noah a drink each evening, and often places Noah's hands on his feet
because it brings him comfort to feel close to another human being that
is dependent upon him for love and care.
When we get back from
therapy, he waits patiently by the car door for Noah to be unloaded from
his wheelchair, saying over and over "Noah, where are you?"
I am raising a compassionate child. ღ¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨` ღ
Although
the beauty of this has little to do with what I'm instilling through
parenting, it has everything to do with a child recognizing at an early
age the needs of another human being and a great desire to offer loving
assistance, companionship and above all else compassion. I watch it
grow each day, stronger than the day before. And soon it will spread as
he goes out into the world, and shares all the lessons he learned in
compassion from his greatest teacher... Noah.
Compassionate people are geniuses in the art of living, more
necessary to the dignity, security, and joy of humanity than the
discoverers of knowledge." Albert Einstein
Love,
Noah's Miracle by Stacy Warden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.