Wendy Car Trouble Compassion

One of my student's parents shared this beautiful experience and her reflections on it.  So  grateful that Wendy Babcock was willing to let me record her experience:

I was reflecting back before baby boy was born. I was in the homestretch and appointments were inevitable. I live near downtown, and morning was bustling - the world in their weekday routines.

I got into the line of cars to turn onto State Street from South Temple...then...my car battery died. I sat there for a moment collecting my thoughts, and the car horns started blaring accusingly. I tried to do the kind hand wave, to shuffle them around. That didn’t work. I decided to get out to stop the line of cars being incessant on their horns. As I stepped out, I had forgotten how humorously pregnant I looked until I saw their shocked faces in the car windows. The honking immediately stopped. It was their moment of realization that they were being jerk faces to a feisty pregnant girl and she might very well be having a baby in the middle of the road.

Anyway. I looked across the street and saw men in their nice shirts and ties who were watching this.... And then I saw another face...a dirty, weather-worn, bearded homeless man beelining towards me asking what he could do to help.

No one in their cars got out. No one on the sidewalk came over. Just the homeless man. Eventually, the cars went around and the homeless man and I decided it was best to move the car out of the way. And then another car stopped. It was a woman. A homeless man and a woman helped me that day. I will never forget their kindness. I will never forget those two people who stepped out of their world and entered mine for a moment without hesitation.

I still chuckle remembering those faces of sheer horror that they were being impatient with a very pregnant woman.

More so, I think of that dirty face. His willingness. We are so quick to judge (even I want to judge all those men in their fancy suits that didn’t help). That day I was reminded that compassion comes in many different forms.

I am not perfect. I am full of many mistakes and regrets. I try to remember to not be so swift to judge seeing something at face value and not knowing someone’s full story because you never really know what a person is experiencing and why.

I am grateful for tender mercies like this. It reminds me that we are all on this journey together and we make the best choices we can in the moments we are given. Sometimes it might not be the right choice, but that is where grace comes in. Just loving, accepting and helping people along the path who we know are guaranteed to stumble. It’s our decision whether we are going to extend the hand of mercy or not. It’s our decision if we choose to love them anyway even with all of their imperfections.

LESSONS LEARNED: Compassion comes in many different forms.

Slow down your judgments. Show grace and mercy.