‘You can’t understand someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes.’

As I began to reflect on how this pandemic has and is continuing to affect us, these words of wisdom came to mind. Although the author is unknown, we are all familiar with the saying. We each have our individual struggles, but perhaps a little more empathy, care and compassion would be helpful in these difficult and trying times.

We are all acutely aware of how lockdown and the ongoing restrictions are affecting ourselves, but how often do we stop to consider how they are affecting other people? Only too often, empathy appears to have been replaced by blame. As our frustration mounts, it is only too easy to point the finger of blame: the politicians are getting it wrong; the youth are not socially distancing; the pubs are failing to implement guidelines; and so we continue to mutter on endlessly…

We are all individuals.  We all have our own strengths and weaknesses, our own talents and flaws.  We are all trying to do our best in these challenging times.  Many of our struggles are hidden from other people - we have not walked in their shoes, nor they in ours.  It is only too easy to put on our game face and pretend all is well, when the reality is very different.

The teachings of Jesus remind us that we are often so busy looking at the speck of dust in someone else’s eye that we ignore the plank that is in our own eye. Those around us of course have faults and failings, but so do we. We need to focus on our own shortcomings and try to improve ourselves before we point out other people’s weaknesses. 

So in these trying times let’s stop pointing the finger of blame and judgement, and begin to look with eyes of kindness and compassion on others and their situations.  We are all struggling in one way or another, but through these difficult times we can see some wonderful things growing. The care and compassion of human nature is astounding. Even in the desert, beautiful flowers can grow and wherever we are at this moment, we can bloom where we are planted.