Everyone is capable of love, of forgiveness, of compassion. It is within our basic human nature. But is also in our nature to assume that we are always right. That what we know and believe in is absolute. We tend to judge other people because they do not have the same philosophy as we do.
We often confuse fact with truth.
We need oxygen to breath, that is a fact. A woman can never have enough shoes, that is a truth. But it may only hold true to some women, not all. We cannot be all the same person, we can't all act in the same manner, we can't all believe in just one truth.
We all need eyes to see, that is another fact. BUT not everybody who has eyes sees the same things. Each person perceives his surrounding differently. A fact will always be a fact, but your truth may not be my truth.
LOVE, joy, courage, compassion, laughter, honor...all big, important words that are thrown out there in books, quotes and movies. We've forgotten one that is just as powerful, EMPATHY. The dictionary defines it as "the ability to understand and share the feelings of another"... I define it as seeing the world in the other person's perspective. You don't need to agree with all the choices a person makes, but that doesn't mean you don't need to see WHY he chose it.
Let us not love and forgive blindly, let us not be compassionate only to the people who are "good"...Open our hearts and also our eyes, see a person for the whole of his being. Go where he came from, live the circumstances that he was dealt with and understand what he's going through. And after all that, maybe you can just respectfully agree to disagree.
Live life with LOVE and always love life with EMPATHY.
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