Truth # 2

7 days later and I'm FINALLY getting around to Truth #2?!! Guess you all thought I was just being facetious when I said it would take me a year! Ha! Anyway...

Truth #2: Something you love about yourself.

I've thought about this one a lot over the past few days. I am not one to take a compliment very well, much less compliment myself so this one was hard. BUT I did think of something, finally.

I think the thing that I love about myself is that I have a lot of compassion for others..friend, enemy, or complete stranger...I do not like to see others hurting. I used to think all people were this way, but as I've gotten older I have found that is not necessarily true.

If someone is hurting, whether I know them or not, I hurt too. You may think this falls under the "people pleasing" umbrella, but in my mind it doesn't. People pleasing is more of a selfish thing, which is why I DO NOT like that about myself. (I mean, really? Who likes to think of themselves as being a selfish person?) In recent years I have discovered that I please others to, unknowingly, make myself feel better. That is not the case with compassion. I have compassion for others, because I care for people and do not like to see others suffer.

I'm sure there is some grand psychological reasoning to why some people are naturally compassionate, while others can laugh at the sight/thought of an "enemy' in pain. Whether it is how I was raised or because of things that I have had to overcome in my life, who knows? Whatever the reason, I do like that I can look past whatever crap I have been handed to lend a hand, an ear, or a shoulder to cry on...even if they would not do the same for me.