Walk a Mile in their Shoes

I recently attended a SHARE seminar (customer service training at AHS). It was full of inspirational stories, movies and activities. But the thing that stood out to me the most, the activity I know I will never forget, had to do with a paper flower. Doesn’t rock your world? Let me explain.

We were each given a paper flower on which we had to write on the petals, things that were the most important to us-things that we would have a hard time living without. I wrote my husband, my family, some of my hobbies, my health, etc. In all, I wrote about 9 things.

Then came the hardest part (I thought). They asked us to remove one of the petals, which would represent not having that in our lives anymore. It was so tough, but I did it. I could live without exercising for the rest of my life, right?

Then, they really let us have it. They had us turn to our neighbors with our flowers facing away from them. They had to randomly tear off three petals. My neighbor tore off my husband, my God, and my health petals. What could be worse than that? Losing your best friend, getting horribly sick, and on top of that, not believing in God.

The trainers reminded us that we don’t know why people act the way they do sometimes. I may never know why the lady just cut in front of me in line. I may never understand the grumpy spandex guy at my gym, but I can try to put myself in their shoes. I can think that they just might be dealing with the things I only had to pretend to deal with.

Needless to say...I wept (I’m a softie). It really hit me hard. So anyway, before you get mad at people, before you get frustrated and say or do something you don’t mean, realize that they could be carrying a burden heavier than you will ever know. Why not try to make their burden a little lighter?