Why must you know the details of my troubles to have compassion? Is it not enough to show compassion simply because you know that everyone has troubles?

You won’t solve your problems by drowning others in them.

Personal problems appear big because we press our nose to the glass to observe them. This only serves to magnify our troubles. The problems of others we tend to view at a reasonable distance from the window, making their woes and bothers appear ordinary. Too bad we don't naturally take a few steps back before considering our own plight.

Walk with me for a while, my friend—you in my shoes, I in yours—and then let us talk.

If we simply imagined that everyone who crossed our path was living out his or her very last day on Earth, we might treat people as kindly as we ought to each day they lived.

A word of consolation
may sweetly touch the ear.
Now and then a quiet song
will clear the mind of fear.

A simple act of kindness
can ease a load of care.
Stories told in memory
diminish all despair.

A whispered prayer of comfort
draws angel arms around.
Counting blessings, great and small,
helps gratitude abound.

These acts, all sympathetic,
will kindly play their part.
But seldom do they dry the tears
shed mutely in the heart.