Do you still judge this mom after you hear the whole story?
Hello Friends,
We oftentimes hear about difficult events in the news, but when it touches our lives personally, we feel it more deeply and the reality becomes more profound.
This past week I was teaching students mindfulness and self-compassion lessons at a school on the north side of Milwaukee. Kids love the lessons from my workbook for kids, but this particular day there was a handful of students in my first hour class who were having a rough time. Before I came in to teach, the first-grade teacher had called the mom of one of the students who had been misbehaving. As I began to teach my lesson, the mom came in, very dysregulated, and started cussing out her child for her misbehavior in front of the whole class. At this point you might be judging the mom, but wait until you hear the whole story in the below video before you judge. I hope the story moves your heart, just as it opened mine.
This is the poem that I share at the video’s end:
Compassion
By Miller Williams
Have compassion for everyone you meet, even if they don’t want it.
What appears bad manners,
an ill temper or cynicism is always a sign of things
no ears have heard, no ears have seen.
You do not know what wars are going on
down there where the spirit meets the bone.
The suffering that children experience is real. I wish there was more we could do to stop the harm, but I do know that bringing compassion and self-compassion to these kids’ classrooms can make a difference.
If you’d like to help self-compassion reach all children, especially children who need it the most, you can contribute to the fundraising effort to get the workbooks translated into Spanish.
Thank you for being on this journey with me.
Wishing you light and love,
Jamie Lynn