OGT DAILY Day Two Hundred and Thirty Four EMPATHY

Children as young as 15 months will spontaneously give to one another even though it is often difficult for them to share.  Babies will burst into tears if they hear another child crying.  Empathy is a deeply engrained human quality.   Of course it must be supported by loving relationships and the security of safety within the home.   Sadly many children do not know this security.  Many that I have known and worked with  It becomes harder for them to feel for others because they lack an inner sense of safety and must always be on guard.  It becomes very difficult to think about others when you are always worrying about yourself.  

Empathy is another quality which can however be cultivated and it is sorely needed right now.
So many displaced by the rising waters in Houston.  The possibility of more of the same in Florida with Hurricane Irma.   The hundreds of thousands displaced in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and now the Rohingya in Mynamar being burned out of their villages.    The world is entirely too filled with cruelty.

I had prayed that small act of kindnesses shown by our president to the victims of Harvey over this weekend would develop some capability for empathy.   I still pray this.   Kindness builds on itself, just as cruelty does.

I take those small acts of kindness as a positive - a gift - and I hope they spread despite of "himself".