November Prompt #3— Saved By Compassion
All of us need compassion, as life obstacles and trials challenge and test us daily in many ways.
November Prompt #3: Compassion: What It’s & What Isn’t
According to Google: Compassion is sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.
There are many people out there in situations where they need compassion, and some of us can tell by just looking at them. My heart, body, mind, and soul can detect the need for compassion everywhere I go.
I can detect it in the eyes of the people I buy from at the market. Others in my community who is going through hell and fighting to hide it. I can sense it too. So, kindness became an involuntary action for me. My instincts can go deep, deeper than you, and the pain life shares with you.
We judge and criticize others by what we see on the outside, unaware of the fire brewing on the inside that a little kindness and compassion can extinguish!
“She comes in here more than twice a day and exercises for twenty minutes, then showers. She doesn’t need the exercise,” Vera, a Planet Fitness worker discusses with Deana, her shift worker.
“True,’ Deana agreed. “She wears the same clothes most of the time. Isn’t she aware of how she smells?”
“When we open only twelve hours she comes early,” Vera criticized.
“She is wearing a wedding ring. That means she is married.”
“She still smells funky.”
Sandy stared at them, as their words dragged painful memories of her and her father living in his car for eighteen months when she was sixteen years old. After they lost everything paying for her mother's cancer treatment. The bank took everything her father had, except the twenty-five-year-old car belonging to his father. They lived in his car until they could afford to rent their own place. They too, used the gym as their personal bathroom, hoping to wash away the shame and pain of their situation.
Her coworker's uncompassionate attitude and lack of empathy stirred and ignited fire within her. The kindness and understanding demanded for this situation allowed her to use common sense mixed in with compassion, and she forced a smile.
Then she questioned, “Did it ever occur to you, that she might be going through hell and fighting to prevent a mental health breakdown!”
Their eyes popped and she dished out more, “Whenever I go out there, and I see someone that society doesn’t think is normal or smells funky, I can sense that they just need a kind word, thought, idea, or action.”
“Mother Theresa is dead,” Vera said.
“And no one can replace her,” Deana adds.
Fighting to control her rage, Sandy quests in shock, “Was there ever a time in your life when you were down in the gutter and a stranger noticed without you doing anything and helped you?”
“Hell no!” They said in unison.
“Down there are for losers!” They laughed, high-fiving each other.
“I pity you,” Sandy's frustration speaks. “You have no idea how beautiful it is to give and receive compassion.”
“She is here!” Vera alerts.
“I think we should tell her not to come back in here,” Deana suggested.
Sandy eased away from behind the counter and rushed towards her as she entered, then turned to them and warned, “if you attempt to further push this client over the edge, who pays her $10 every month to utilize our service, I will report you to Steven.”
They paused as Sandy greeted Elaine Denroy. That’s the name that came up when she scanned the QR code.
Sandy then walked with her talking.
“That was more than twenty years ago, and we are business partners today,” Sandy Fullerton explained to the audience of young people. “She is the kindest, most thoughtful, considerate, honest, and loving human being I met next to my father. I haven’t met anyone else like them since.”
Tears reeled from many eyes and someone asked, “What happened to your two coworkers?”
“They reported me to HR telling many lies. HR sent the report to my father who laughed when one of the reporters explained the lies in detail. “She found someone that needed help. My daughter goes deep and can sense and feel your cry for kindness without you saying a word,” he explained.
“Your father owned Planet Fitness?” someone in the audience asked.
“He was one of the investors in the Franchise.”
“No one knew?”
“No, I was raised not to flaunt wealth. My father believes that’s the best way to find real people. If they think you are poor, many will show you their real self.”
More tears flowed.
“Where is Elaine Denroy today?” Someone asked.
“I am right here,” a voice in the audience said. A short female rose from the middle, in the second row of the third aisle.
She walked on stage hugging Sandy.
Someone compliments, “You two are the most successful female duo in the country, and it’s all because of compassion. Have you ever wondered what life would have been like if you had followed the other two coworkers?”
Elaine shared, “Deana is in and out of various rehabs battling drug addictions.”
“And Vera is in prison for running a homeless person over.”
“Damn!” someone in the audience gasped. “They both found themselves in situations where they need compassion from others. I pray they get it!”
“So, tragedy brought you together and compassion ignited the flames of friendship that made you business partners and friends?” someone questioned.
“I too was living in my car. I lost everything paying for my husband’s kidney failure. I thanked her for seeing the need and reacting positively. I don’t know where my life would be if she had followed her coworkers?”
Some of us can sense the ones in need of a little kindness and love. When you can, give it. You never know the outcome. All of us need compassion, as life obstacles challenge and test us. We can make it, with a powerful boost from a little bit of compassion and kindness.
Give kindness every chance you get. You could be saving a life!
Thank Bassey By for more brain exercises. Please feel free to join in and inspire and shares ways to be and identify when others need compassion.
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