Season of MORE! 2016: Compassion vs. Kindness

We're always told to be kind.

I say we should not be kind. Well, we shouldn't be ONLY kind.

We should also be COMPASSIONATE.

Kindness is just being nice.

Compassion, on the other hand, means that we empathize and feel for those that we are being kind to. Another way of thinking about it is "being kind WITH". (I know, I know...I shouldn't end a sentence with a proposition, but...)

Compassion is risky, though. We have to step outside of our own little safe, secure, well-known self-contained views of the world and risk changing who we are. Because that happens. When we see things from the perspective of another, we stop seeing it just our way. We expand our view to include another. It may not be one we like or agree with, but we at least know what the view is and can choose which one we are going to look from.

So...

Be courageous. Be willing to look from a place other than your own little-head-space. Be willing to see others through their own eyes.

And be more than kind. Be compassionate.