It’s time to move to the second week of the Empathic Kindness class. As a reminder, the inspiration for the class is an article called “Six Habits of Highly Empathic People” by Roman Krznaric.
In the article, Krznaric tells us that “Highly Empathic People challenge their own preconceptions and prejudices by searching for what they share with people rather than what divides them.” So that’s your “assignment” this week, to look for the things you share with people rather than the things that make you different.
Start with what may be simple things. Bring enhanced awareness that your share relatives with your family members, that your share the area you live with your neighbors, the grocery store with the people who work there, etc. Then start looking for characteristics you share with people, things that may be quirky about you and someone else.
See if doing this helps you crawl inside the experiences of some other people this week. After all, that’s what empathy is, isn’t it? Feeling what someone else is feeling, or at least trying to.
Kind Living 
I have lived part time in rural Texas for 8 years now and for the first time I have joined a group. This week I participated in the Stitch and Bitch group of woman who do crafts and meet once a week to work, to help each other do their projects, and to share stories about their spouses, children, and their lives. As this was my first time at the group I tried to meet everyone and to see what kind of work they were doing. One woman was making a lap quilt for each of her grandchildren and was disappointed that the machine stitiching was very hard to do well. I told her, that none of us are perfect and the grandchild will love the quilt even if it isn’t perfect. I have a tendancy to be a perfectionist myself and remembered I should listen to my own words. I befriended several of the women on Fb and they post a lot! Unfortunately, they are typical of the people I meet here in Texas, politically, religiously, and socially conservative. I am now wondering what my liberal friends from Masschusetts must think of some of the posts on my page. I actually deleted a few of the posts. May have opened a can of worms… by my desire to get to know the other women who live in our subdivision. Only time will tell….