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Posts tagged ‘Compassion’

Jan 14

Path of Love

“In the long run, the sharpest weapon of all is a kind and gentle spirit.”― Anne Frank, The Diary of Anne Frank

“Where there’s hope, there’s life. It fills us with fresh courage and makes us strong again.”― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

Long run
Endurance
Daily decisions
To be kind
To care
To not succumb to indifference, to fear
To ask
To listen
To compassion
To go deeper
To understanding
To hope
To take right action
To walk the path of love
Fresh courage, soft heart, gentle spirit, generous heart
Cast light

“No one has ever become poor by giving.”― Anne Frank

Jan 13

Building Bridges

“Men build too many walls and not enough bridges.”― Joseph Fort Newton

“Opinion is really the lowest form of human knowledge. It requires no accountability, no understanding. The highest form of knowledge… is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another’s world. It requires profound purpose larger than the self kind of understanding.”― Bill Bullard

Less assumption, judgment, fear, indifference
More questions, listening, gentleness, humanity
Multiply rather than divide
Compound human interest
Invitation, welcoming, belonging
Kindness, compassion, peace
Build bridges
Make connections
Cast light

“We have, as human beings, a storytelling problem. We’re a bit too quick to come up with explanations for things we don’t really have an explanation for.”― Malcolm Gladwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

May 5

Dancing with a Limp

“But those who are able to distinguish between a range of various emotions “do much, much better at managing the ups and downs of ordinary existence than those who see everything in black and white.”― Brené Brown, Atlas of the Heart

“You’ll lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still hurts when the weather gets cold—but you learn to dance with the limp.” – Anne Lamott

This quote from Anne Lamott came in a weekly email from Grief Compass, a wonderful resource that has been helpful and free from platitudes, shoulds, processes/rules, black and white and move on already. Loss not only comes with death of a family member or friend. It comes from a change/loss of a job, a divorce, retirement, the kids leaving home, a 3 year pandemic, shifting relationships, disappointments woven through life.

All walk paths of grief. Each differently. Some avoiding, looking for the bypass. Some going through, right up the middle. Most a mix of it all. No one skipped or bypassed. This is where empathy, compassion and self-care come in to sit with us. And also, how we learn to dance again with a limp. Ever changed, different, broken open and moving back into the current of life, then back on the shore and then back in the river yet again.

If you are on the front-end of this journey, you are not alone. Sit with it, nothing to solve or fix. Reach out, find someone who will listen and sit with you. Grief is the cost of love. I would rather pay the price than to not love deeply and imperfectly. Love well today and dance, especially with a limp.

“This is one reason we need to dispel the myth that empathy is “walking in someone else’s shoes.” Rather than walking in your shoes, I need to learn how to listen to the story you tell about what it’s like in your shoes and believe you even when it doesn’t match my experiences.”― Brené Brown, Atlas of the Heart

Jan 27

Full Immersion and Expression

“Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of trouble, attempts what is above its strength, pleads no excuse of impossibility; for it thinks all things lawful for itself, and all things possible.” – Thomas a Kempis

“What are the characteristics of the most wonderful people you know? The WONDERFUL ones? They said, Loving. Caring. Kind. And so I asked them, Is that not what success actually is? To be a wonderful person who touches someone else’s life?”― Julie Lythcott-Haims, Your Turn: How to Be an Adult

Above and beyond.
The extra mile.
Reaching out.
Going first to engage, not waiting or taking turns.
No calculation, measure, keeping score.
A smile that shouts “HELLO.”
An exclamation point.
A comma and semi-colon to pause.
Inquiry and observation.
A conversation, a real connection.
Listening to understand, not reply.
Responding with gentleness rather than judgment.
Generosity of spirit.
Soft heart.
A magnet.
Hospitality and welcoming.
Inviting and belonging.
This is love.
Tether and anchor in love and then go show it.
Loving. Caring. Kind.
This is how we save ourselves and the world.
The power of one, then another, and another…
No excuse of impossibility.
All things possible.
Light your wick.
Full immersion and expression.

“Compassion means the full immersion in the condition of being human.” – Henri Nouwen

Jan 18

Only Kinship

“There is no force in the world better able to alter anything from its course than love.”― Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion

“No daylight to separate us.

Only kinship. Inching ourselves closer to creating a community of kinship such that God might recognize it. Soon we imagine, with God, this circle of compassion. Then we imagine no one standing outside of that circle, moving ourselves closer to the margins so that the margins themselves will be erased. We stand there with those whose dignity has been denied. We locate ourselves with the poor and the powerless and the voiceless. At the edges, we join the easily despised and the readily left out. We stand with the demonized so that the demonizing will stop. We situate ourselves right next to the disposable so that the day will come when we stop throwing people away.”― Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion

Kinship, kindness, compassion in abundance.
Margins erased, boundaries crossed, connections made.
The noise of othering, judgment, and opinion fade to reveal our shared humanity.
May love be our map and destination.
Oh, the places we could go.

“We exercise kindness in any moment when we recognize our shared humanity—with all the hopes, dreams, joys, disappointments, vulnerability, and suffering that implies.”― Sharon Salzberg, Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection

Aug 25

No Small Acts

“Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.” —Mother Teresa

“Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.” —Scott Adams

Never underestimate the power of thoughts and words
Go beyond yourself and encourage others
If you want to change the world, you can today in small acts
Be kind, smile, greet a stranger, call a friend, text encouraging words to a family member
Put aside opinion, judgment and righteousness and be a good human being
We are not called to be doers, busy, efficiently checking off tasks
We are called to be light, peace and joy
Get your mind off yourself, being offended, being owed anything, comparison and counting
It’s a trap that keeps you stuck, shrinks your world
Be generous and suddenly you become rich
What will you leave behind on the path you walk today?
Seeds or weeds
Brighten someone’s day and the sun shines on both

“That is what compassion does. It challenges our assumptions, our sense of self-limitation, worthlessness, of not having a place in the world, our feelings of loneliness and estrangement. These are narrow, constrictive states of mind. As we develop compassion, our hearts open.” —Sharon Salzberg

Feb 8

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Thick Days

Some days are thicker than others – I’ve had a turkey this week – three in a row. Great if I was bowling. It really doesn’t matter “why” or “what” but more important is the “how” we go through these days. With grace or complaint. All of us have them – remember that. No one, no one, no one does not go through “thick days.” We all do. And having that awareness and looking for the cues can allow us to help others through them.

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