Compassion

Friday is my day to volunteer at the hospital for a couple of hours.  People who are there for one day surgery sign in and I call the nurses' station to announce that their next patient is there.
One of the reasons that I enjoy the waiting room is that I run into people and former students from years passed.  That was the case today.
I asked a friendly looking young man if he would please get the top/lid off of my bottle of Snapple. [I have a hard time with that, and I didn't want to pound it on the desk to 'pop the seal' the way I do at home.]  When I looked at his face, I realized that it was a familiar one...a former student.
While he was easy to recall and a wonderful young man as a student, it was his sister who left a profound and lasting impression.on me.  A great kid and a pleasure to teach, she was obviously a very compassionate person even at the age of ten.
She quietly raised her hand in the middle of a lesson and said,
"Please excuse my interruption, but there is a moth caught in a spider web right outside the window, and it is very stressed.  Could I please just let it go so that it won't die trying to get free?"
Well, of course!
She hopped up on the window shelf and her good friend held her waist while I held her feet as she freed that struggling moth/butterfly.
Whew!  What a simple yet grand gesture to another living creature!

So as her brother left, I asked him to say hello to his sister for me, and ask her if she remembers rescuing a moth from a spider's web in 5th grade.
'Cause I sure do!!