Compassion

com·pas·sion  
noun
-a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, 
accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.


The one emotion I struggled to come to terms with as a young adult was compassion.  I arrived at compassion with my own mother.   I became aware of it and owned the emotion and have since applied it toward other humans.  It was not easy but it has tethered my feet to the ground.  

This week, a blogger that I follow put up a guest post titled 'I don't like my children.'  This mother was RAW and open about her frustrations with having a son with Aspergers and a daughter with ADHD.  I admire her authenticity and openness.

I don't have children with special needs.  But I get her.  I can only *imagine* the life that she has to face day in and day out.

A ton of people were up in arms with her candid confession.

As mothers, we all handle different circumstances in different ways.  Thanks to the wonderful and enormous blogosphere, we can dispense of our thoughts, joys, frustrations, depressions, anxieties, doubts, worries, love and fantastic news of our lives while hundreds read us and sometimes, chime in.

When I read stories like the one Jill, of Scary Mommy graciously posted, I'm often struck with how little *compassion* other mothers have for one another when I read comments or see trickles of less than 140 character comments on Twitter.

It pains me to think that I cannot be RAW with other mothers if I *need* to share a deep emotion or struggle or thought that I'm experiencing in my parenting or life in general.  It pains me to sometimes 'hear' myself 'think' of judging another mother's choice, decision or challenge.

It pains me.

I know that we are all in this together.

I am certainly NOT perfect.

I make a gazillion mistakes.

I often find myself apologizing to my daughters for some dumb ass thing I said.

I have issues.  Many issues, including bouts of depression or sudden bursts of anxiety.

I feel that as moms, we all need to be a little more compassionate toward one another.

Every. mother. IS. needed.

Compassion is a powerful tool to show a person that you're living
and breathing and surviving just like they are.

I will never know what a mother is REALLY going through when I see her yell at her child in the park.  I will never know if the mother that ignored her shrieking child in the grocery store struggled that morning to peel herself out of bed to simply go out and buy food.  I will never know what it feels like to WANT your child to simply utter the word 'Mama' at the age of 4 because they can't.  I hope to never know the despair a mother with a child that has cancer feels every waking moment of her life.

I will never know many things until it happens to me.

In the meantime, I vow to be compassionate to my fellow mothers both in my daily and virtual life.  Always here if you need me...