Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/empathy-and-love-in-action/5027430/
We all suffer disappointment, fear, pain, and loss. It is part of what it means to be human. How we respond to these trials can reveal our purpose in life. Can we be with the grief as our lives slowly reinflate? Can we refocus the intensity of our grief and use the love we have to benefit others?
Ten years ago I met a woman, who I will refer to as Yvette, in a café in Nairobi. She introduced herself by telling me about her role as an early childhood education adviser for a charity working in underserved communities.
Yvette told me that she was born into relative affluence distanced from the hardships of her neighbors. She trained as an early childhood teacher working in private schools, which she enjoyed. She married and had a son. They named him Samuel. One morning, after his first birthday, Yvette woke up to discover that her son had somehow managed to get out of his room. Tragically he had fallen to his death over a balcony. Yvette was devastated. Many months later her grief had not abated and she fell into depression.
One day she picked up a newspaper with an advert for an early childhood educational ...