compassion

the word that takes sympathy into actually doing something about it.   a friend of mine put it as the difference between pity & action.  boy was he right.

I've been noticing it in my son, Jude.  He has always been a very tender child.  Sensitive.  Loving.  Observant.  It was honestly his little 2-yr old pudgy arms around my neck that got me through my first miscarriage....and his sweet words to me: "Mama no more cry!"

Tonight, I saw this beautiful gift in him come alive.  I found out Joel was working late again so I decided to organize.  Leland was in a fantastic "I'll just play while you get stuff done, Mom..." kinda mood.  It was perfect.

With Christmas coming, I wanted to go through Jude's massively embarrassing heap of toys in various toy boxes and purge and purge and purge.

I gave Jude a box to go through and decide which toys to donate.

Little did I know....he was separating the toys he wanted to give away by how much each of his friends might appreciate them.  This was the dialogue:

Me: Jude, why you making all those piles, bud?  

Jude: Well, Liam LOVES Star Wars so I'm going to give him a bunch of my Star Wars stuff....and Ethan loves Batman so I'm going to give him this cool Batman guy....and Bebo loves Spiderman so I'm going to give him this cool rocket...and Matheo will SO love this firetruck, I can't wait to see him when I give it to him...

The explanation of each toy/guy/figurine lasted for a nearly 20 minutes until we had 3 bags full of toys for friends and 5 garbage bags full of toys for those in need.

Just a year ago when I did this...Jude barely could give me 3 broken toys to give up.  He wanted to keep everything and not let anything go.  In just a year, he grew up and he learned something that takes many years to learn: It truly is better to give than it is to receive. 

Jude, Ethan and Liam (2008)