Be Kind…You Never Know What Someone Is Going Through

As parents, we wear many hats, juggle so much, are responsible for many people’s happiness and well-being. Sometimes we add more responsibility by volunteering in the classroom, or helping drive on field trips or help coach or lead an extracurricular activity. We find our systems, our balance, and our stride to piece together a complex set of activities, work commitments, and more within a weekly and daily calendar that (hopefully) allows us to meet all our commitments and find quality family time and time for ourselves.

If we are lucky, we build this routine and move forward with all of our passions and pursuits with minor bumps and obstacles but are able to push through and succeed.

But every once in a while, we are thrown off track. Sometimes in little ways, sometimes in big ways. It brings the world around us to a screeching halt – everything was moving so fast, and suddenly none of it matters. A friend is sick, someone we love is hurt, a parent or grandparent is in the hospital, or our child is not functioning in school. It can derail us, and make all the other little things going on seem so small and unimportant.

Tim and I are lucky enough to have very few of these incidents, and sometimes I can attribute our ability to spread ourselves so thin to that fortune. But every once in a while, its our turn to deal with misfortune, surprise, incidents and problems. Going through them now and then helps remind me how frail all of our balance truly is. And that people around me, people I care about, also deal with things that derail them as well.

What we all need to know, is that when it’s our turn, when misfortune comes our way, that it’s ok to stop, let go of the spinning world, and focus on what matters. I wish I had given myself that latitude a couple of years ago when my grandmother passed away. Tim was in New York, I was juggling work, school and taking care of 3 kids ages 1,3 & 6, and I didn’t say “stop” to the world and give myself time to grieve. I know better now, and I know to allow others that latitude as well.

I know I won’t always know when someone I pass during the day has suffered a misfortune, sometimes these issues are very private or too emotional to discuss. But I also know that I have learned from those I do know, and that I always will try to give people latitude, to understand their difficulties and struggles and put them in context first before making assumptions or presumptions.

Today I wish for the best for those suffering around me, and hope that they have the strength, support and kindness surrounding them to focus on their struggles, and not worry about the rest. I hope for compassion in the world around us, in myself and in others, to take care of my friends who need it.