Compassion.

I am always excited about @JonicaBradley's prompts and another way to start the week and the topic is compassion.

Anyone can join in on this prompt and I am inviting @fantagira and @Hanzell to come on board too.

The rules for the writing prompt are simple:

• Write about Compassion

• Write 100% original content

• Write at least 600 words

• Tag me @JonicaBradley

• Have fun

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Life is full of ups and downs and as much as we are watching out for ourselves, we need to be sensitive to the need of others around us. You can be seated next to a broken person and you wouldn't know it. I like adding values to people's lives and I picked that from my late dad - helping and giving to people. He would go out of his way just to make others comfortable. He lived for his family and others.

He was betrayed many times and still, he kept at it. I have seen a lot too and that's why someone's ungratefulness won't drive me to the verge of not showing compassion to others. Every man is responsible for himself and I won't allow someone to be the stumbling block for another especially when it is in my capacity to be of help. I would rather live for a day and touch many lives than live for hundred years and still not be remembered by anyone.

Life is delicate. Life is hard enough and in every way that we can, let us make it liveable for others. I love doing those random acts of kindness where I might enter a cab and before alighting, I will pay for another person and quickly run off so I won't have to hear thank you. I know it is courtesy for people to say thank you but I am not a fan of hearing it but I can always give it hahahaha. Don't mind me, once is enough because I don't like to be thanked too much, I like keeping myself in check not to get over myself.

I can remember one day I entered a cab. I went to the bank from my office back then and this woman came in and mistakenly she slammed the door on her finger. I have been there before and I knew how painful that thing is. To make it easier for her, I thought it in my heart to pay for her fare. I like paying for people's fares when I am close to where I am going so I can run off without being thanked.

On this day, this woman decided to pay early I guess because she wasn't even close to where she was going. I pulled a fast one on her and quickly paid for her fare. I could feel her stare at me. We sat at both extremes in the cab with another woman seated in between us. It was the woman in the middle that tapped me to call my attention that the woman wanted to say something even though I heard and saw it hahaha. I looked at her and she expressed herself. She asked if I knew her husband or if she knew me since I paid for her fare. I told her none and she was shocked even more. She told me to thank you and I smiled. I told her it was okay. One of the many random acts of kindness or compassion as in this case.

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Back then as well, I promised myself to raise some money on Steemit so I can help two old men that usually come to our office to ask for money. They come around, joke with us and anyone with money would reach out to them and give them. I thought to myself, how long would they have to come and ask for money when I can do something for them that would last them for at least a week or two. I knew whatever they get from us can't sustain them for long and I took the step to raise money for them on Steemit during one of the challenges that were held there.

I won that challenge and I converted the token to money. It was sizeable enough for me to go into the market with another co-worker and buy as many food items that we could buy. We got them and left for the office to pack them. We both them in twos. I was excited about it and I waited for the two elderly men to come around. They came at different intervals and I could see their eyes filled with tears already and I had to stop looking. Indeed, what comes from the heart touches the heart. I was happy because it meant something to them.

The food items were heavy and one of my colleagues gladly helped in taking it home for one of them. He explained how the wife was excited when she saw the man and the food items and that touched my heart. How a simple act of kindness can bring out the purest of joy in another human being.

• NB: I tried everything to retrieve the pictures I took for the food items I packed for them with their pictures but unfortunately I couldn't find them. I checked my Google Photos and still couldn't find them.

Compassion can be achieved when we decided to live for others other than ourselves. It is never about whether they deserved it or not but about reaching out to the inward part of another to let them see what life should be about and also let them change the way they see life and also reproduce it for others in their own little space as well. That's why it is called compassion - showing concern for the troubles of others.

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We need to show compassion to ourselves too and stop beating ourselves up for what we can no longer change. We need to go easy on ourselves and try to balance the equation. Life won't always be kind to us but that shouldn't stop us from being kind to others. It is true, you can't give what you don't have and it is important for us to be kind and compassionate to ourselves so we can reach in and also reach out to others as a result of that. Life will stress you but always remember that there are those who have it worse than you and of course those who have it better than you as well.

I know in the world that we live in, everyone is trying to get by and then fend for themselves. We need to pay it forward, truly...not because we have it all figured out but because we decided to make life better for others out of compassion. Compassion is not pity. You can pity someone and not be moved to reach out but compassion requires effort, it requires actions. Compassion to me is an action word - you feel it and then you act it. We all need one another in this life. No one has it all figured out. We live and learn as we grow and go through life. There is nothing we have that should be too much to help others with, no matter how little we think it is. That little might mean the world to others.

Be compassionate to others because this life is in circles and cycles, you won't know when you might just need it. Not wishing for anything bad but someone might just be compassionate to you and give you that which you most desired.

Thank you for your time.