Empathy and Sympathy

3/30/2014


This has been quite the week. I know I wrote before, here, about how my dog Theodore is sick. Well this week it was my other dog, Bijoux's, turn. My crazy normal dog is one that is full of energy, super jumpy, runs everywhere, and eats everything. However, Monday night she didn't want any food and would hardly move. Very uncharacteristic. By Tuesday I had taken her to the vet and again on Wednesday where she proceed to stay till Friday afternoon. Bijoux was running a fever, had no appetite, was peeing herself, and didn't want to move unless forced and they were trying to figure out why. If you can imagine I spent this past week worrying and hoping that she would just get better. Which brings me to the point of this post. There were a lot of people asking questions and wanting updates on how she was and a lot of comments thrown my way. It opened my eyes and made me more aware of the differences between empathy and sympathy.

I saw a wonderful video from the blog, A Cup of Jo, on the Power of Empathy, here. Thought I would share it. I hope when someone shares their struggles or hard/sad times that I am empathetic to their situations instead of being sympathetic.

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