No time to read? Listen here:
Have you ever heard someone say that people are like icebergs?
The part of a person we see — the way someone acts, what they say, the version of themselves they show us — it’s all just the top. A tiny peak above the surface.
The biggest part of the iceberg is under the water, invisible.
And below a person’s waterline might be grief, trauma, exhaustion, sickness. It might be shame, fear, chronic pain, a broken heart, or worry that keeps them up at night. It might be a history we’ll never know. A story they’re not ready to tell. A burden they carry in silence.
A hundred other things.
Compassion makes space
And so when someone is short with us, distracted, cold, or even mean — maybe we remember we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg.
Not because being compassionate in this way fixes anything on the spot, but because it makes space.
Because it says: I see you’re human, I respect your private story, and I’ll treat you like it.
And those hundred things beneath the surface? They become a hundred reasons to be kind.
We hope for grace too
Compassion doesn’t mean letting people walk all over us. It doesn’t mean excusing harmful behavior. It does mean giving someone the benefit of the doubt. It means assuming good intentions, or at least holding back judgment long enough to say: Maybe they’re just going through something I can’t see.
And let’s be honest — we all hope for that same grace when we’re struggling, too.
So in small, everyday moments that just grate on us — the way someone talks, when they don’t say thanks, when they’re rude or thoughtless — let’s remember we really don’t know what’s going on with them.
Maybe we say less.
Maybe we just keep walking or driving or working, and think: Iceberg. I’m only seeing the surface.
#kindness #kindnessmatters #spreadkindness #treatpeoplewithkindness #kindnessrocks