How might knowing that everyone is facing some kind of battle impact how I respond to people?

There’s a simple, yet I think profound quote that is attributed to Plato, which is:

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

I have carried this phrase in my head and heart for many years, which I try to pause and remember at those moments of frustration or disappointment when interacting with what feels like difficult people.

For many years I kept the following reflection by Isaac Penington, one of my early Quaker luminaries, on the outside wall of my office where I counseled children and teens:

“Our life is love, and peace, and tenderness;
And bearing one with another,
And forgiving one another,
And not laying accusations
One against another;
But praying one for another,
And helping one another
Up with a tender hand…”
– Isaac Penington

I displayed this as a poster, so many people, from parents to children, read these words coming and going, with many visitors expressing how beautiful it was. Being a public agency, more than once a passerby said it was a religious statement and therefore had no place being in a municipal building. However, I refused to remove it. And when I retired after 31 years of a wonderful career, I left it hanging on the wall when I left.