Everyone has a story

Each connection with another human is an opportunity to hear their story.

It’s easy to group people into buckets. Assign labels. Assume that someone fits into the average of what you expect from a person like them.

But the average person doesn’t exist.

Everyone we meet has with unique desires, emotions, and a life story entirely their own.

All too often we miss the humanity in our daily interactions with people.

Someone cuts us off in traffic and we immediately villainize them—to be fair, if you're a hazard to those around you that’s a whole problem to address, but it doesn’t mean you’re not worthy of being treated with dignity. Or maybe someone just steps over a boundary and we feel nothing but annoyance. Having the emotion of frustration is fine, but disregarding them as a human harms our own souls just as much.

Then there are cases where true evil occurs. Someone hurts another in a way that has lasting impact. people around us.

There’s always opportunity to listen, to understand what someone is going through, to let them know we hear them.

Whenever I’ve stopped and taken then the time to truly hear someone out, I’ve caught small glimpse into their view of the world—and sometimes that’s magical.