Own your empathy: The greatest lesson I learnt from my toddler

My son and I visited a friend of mine in a clinic recently. We were sitting outdoors in a communal garden area, where we met a gentleman who had recently had a traumatic and nearly fatal motorcycle accident. As a result, his nose had to be reconstructed. If you can picture it, he literally had nothing where his nose should have been, except for four pins that had been placed there ahead of his upcoming operation. It was not a pretty sight and I could hear some surrounding tables making inappropriately loud comments about his appearance. I could see he was going through a tremendous amount of pain, both physically and emotionally.He was playing soccer in the garden and approached my son and me, asking if he could teach him ‘his secret soccer moves’. I was very relaxed about this but was curious to see how my toddler would handle this gentleman. He bounced up from his chair, very excited about the invitation, and the three of us played for a while until we had to leave.What amazed me most about this brief encounter was that my son did not comment once on this man’s appearance. In the car on the way home, I was expecting a comment like, ‘Mommy, why didn’t the man not have a nose?’ but it never came.My son didn’t see what I and the other adults at the clinic noticed that day. He just saw a man who wanted to teach him how to play soccer. It astounded me that he just saw the essence of who this man was – a friendly, likeable human being – even when the man himself seemed to be battling with his own appearance as much as everyone else was.This made me question how many opportunities we miss out on because we are our own worst judges. The point I want to make with this story is to encourage you to practise gratitude every day, to realise how blessed you really are and to view yourself through the eyes of a child – without judgement and unconditional.Just as we were about to leave, the man came up to me and thanked me. I asked him what for. He replied, saying he was grateful to be treated like a person, that we made him feel normal for one day.Just think what one act of kindness and true empathy can do for someone else. And what it can do for you in return.Here’s to Owning your empathy,Best wishes,Lori