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?"
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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.