We are surrounded by people challenged by distress, sometimes as inconsequential as frustration over a traffic delay, sometimes as devastating as the loss of their home, health, livelihood, or a loved one. How we respond to the pain of others depends upon the openness of our heart. No matter how sad we may feel, when we pity others we perceive ourselves as inherently separate from and even above them because they are having emotions or problems that we do not share. But we can respond with genuine compassion when we can acknowledge and empathetically identify with their emotions. We can give them comfort because we can share their pain without having to fix it for them. Pity often resembles compassion, but it comes from a very different heart space.

May I mindfully meet
the suffering of others
with the grace of an open heart
so that I may
compassionately share with them
the emotions
natural to our human condition.

Jean Smith in Now! The Art of Being Truly Present