Until You Walk A Mile

Published on October 07, 2014

Alcoholism consumed the person who was my mother many years ago, but there are flashes of her real self that come back to me from time to time and for that I am grateful.

This world of personal growth is so often defined by material items or accolades or the view of achievement from reaching higher and higher.  I don't want to diminish the importance of these, but there are also the subtleties that get missed as to how we can weave and strengthen the fabric of life.  Experiencing peace and calm and empathy are equally lofty goals of a life well lived.  Of late I have been paying particular attention to these and working at being a student of them. A client today was describing a particularly difficult challenge they were having with a family member, the impact it was having on their day and how angry they were at the person for how they had acted.  In very short order I was able to alter their perception of the situation and how they would react to this person in the future.  It was not until more than an hour later that I realized the words of wisdom I was able to share were words I had plagiarized from my mother.

For more times than I could count growing up, I heard her telling others if they spoke disparagingly about another, "You can't know until you've walked a mile in their moccasins", she would say.  Those simple words can do so much to alter our perception of another and provide the opportunity for empathy and calm and understanding.  As with most things in life the truth is that we don't really get to know.  We can't fully comprehend what they have been through and what they may be dealing with this exact moment in time. "Until you've walked a mile in their moccasins" as my mother would say. Then, and only then can we truly understand the path of another.  Have an excellent day.

Be well,

Randy Taylor