March 26: Sorry

A statement I heard yesterday has stuck in my mind today. Sympathy is an emotion, but compassion is acting on that emotion--doing something about it. What that really means is we should not just sit there and feel sorry for someone, but instead, we should get up, go out of our ways, and do something. It's simple. Today, I tried it out. Someone might complain, ask a question or a favor, so I'd stop what I'm doing to solve his/her problem or answer the question. It's much better than just sitting there and saying "sorry." In fact, now I recall that last year, for Lent, I gave up the word "sorry" in exchange for meaningful requests for forgiveness and sincere apologies. In this case, giving up "sorry" would mean more compassion and less sympathy.