Lead With Love

It is no real secret, if you know me to any degree, that I really love people. I recently heard a quote by Cory Booker that said, “We need to lead with love”. I could not agree more, nor say it any better. It sounds so much like something I would say, I have wondered if Cory Booker stole the quote from me. He didn’t. I give him full credit for his simple, eloquent statement.

I think there are many salient moments in my formative years that shaped the way I move through this world. However, my two trips to the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho stretched and developed my emotional capacity for love and compassion beyond a limit that even I ever thought I could surpass. Working alongside the Basotho was an incredibly special time in my life and the experience was only heightened by the fact that I had the thrilling privilege to share it with Wittenberg college students. For the first time in my life, I could literally see the capacity for compassion in a person grow before my very own eyes. On more than a dozen occasions I saw a student “figure it out” – what it meant to have compassion and share an emotional experience in empathy with someone they hardly knew but understood why it was important to do so. Amazing. Simply stated.

Often I have wondered how we can enliven the compassionate spirit within others around us that we know could use a good dose of it. I have not created a magic potion, or remedy that I can use, although I will quickly market it if I do. What I have been able to do is recognize ways in which growing compassion in people might be effective. I have observed how my young niece is developing a strong sense of compassion and much of it, I believe, stems from sharing my stories and experiences from traveling to Lesotho. My niece, Zoe Sage, has a mother (my sister, Mickey) that believes in leading with love and has instilled much of that attitude in Zoe. Add this rearing approach to the exposure Zoe has had to my Lesotho stories and we have a loving, sensitive 9-year old that finds a space in her heart for even a piece of trash. That sounds humorous and as if I am exaggerating but I’m not. This young girl has a capacity to find a place for everything in this world and for everything to have a shared community in which it can grow and be loved. Yes, even trash. When Zoe was 7 years old, Africa was the second continent she could clearly point out on a world map, or globe, after indicating where North America was. But my favorite part of Zoe’s big heart is how often she references the children in Africa and Lesotho specifically. When we wrote a letter to Santa two years ago, one of Zoe’s items on her wish list was to provide all the “cheldrin in Afrika with shoos, soks and gud cloths”. That moment was imprinted on my heart so much that I still remember the beautifully expressed – albeit incorrectly spelled – words she used. This past spring when Mickey and Zoe were doing some spring-cleaning, Zoe suggested that they send “some of my old stuffed animals to the children in Lesotho so they have something to play with”. Priceless. Simply stated.

If I was going to experiment with how to build compassion in people, I may use the model of Zoe’s young life as the template as it appears that she has developed the care and understanding about the importance of our global brothers and sisters without much resistance. It proves to me that the ability to have compassion for others is an innate sensibility that we are born with and, if cultivated at an early stage in our childhood years, will be unveiled to the benefit of those who surround us.  To tell the story of my time in Lesotho with family and friends, while feeling futile at times, has proven to generate some shared compassion about a cause that is dear to me, including in my niece, Zoe. That is some rich residual impact of the growth of compassion in my own heart. Fulfilling. Simply stated.

I will continue my pursuit to share the development of compassion and empathy in others around me, whether they are 9, 19 or even 99 years old. As much as I can, after my time in Lesotho, I will always aim to do my best to Lead with Love. Simply stated.

Sarah

Sarah Jurewicz is a founding Board Member and currently resides in Springfield, Ohio.