The Art of Empathy
“Together they sat in silence, until Taylor said, ‘Please stay with me.’
The rabbit listened.”
Adult nonfiction author and researcher Karla McLaren argues that empathy is life’s most essential skill. Empathy, she says, is a social and emotional skill that helps us feel and understand the emotions, circumstances, intentions, thoughts, and needs of others, such that we can offer sensitive, perceptive, and appropriate communication and support.
In her book The Art of Empathy, she says that we are a deeply empathic species and that research shows that we begin to develop empathic skills before the age of 2. That said, we live in a emotion-averse culture and many of us don’t grow up with healthy emotional and empathic modeling, so we lose our way in terms of knowing how to be there for others. So it is wonderful to find The Rabbit Listened, a beautiful picture book by Cori Doerrfeld, in which a little bunny does the modeling for us.
This little bunny has empathic skills nailed. When something sad happens to Taylor, all the animals project their own ideas and feelings onto Taylor—which of course doesn’t help. Taylor doesn’t feel comforted, heard, or supported at all. And then the rabbit shows up and knows just how to support Taylor in a sensitive and healthy way. What a wonderful little empathic bunny!