Compassion is Not a Luxury

This morning I saw a headline “How Next Door Neighbors With Different Political Views Have Stayed Friends.” The photo shows a driveway with a Biden sign on one side and a Trump sign on the other. By each of the political signs was a sign of compassion.

Handmade yard signs with arrows, reading ‘We (Heart) Them,’ stand alongside opposing political signs in the Mitchell and Gates front yards in Mt. Lebanon, a suburb of Pittsburgh.

Last evening my dharma buddy said John and I are the macrocosm and microcosm. Macrocosm and microcosm refers to a realization that a part reflects the whole and vice versa. Think about a wave in the ocean.

The Mitchell and Gates households are also the macrocosm and microcosm.

I received an email of cartoons about President Trump this morning. A wave of nausea arose as I saw the depth of unkindness of the content. In Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith, Anne Lamott writes, “Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.”

You may have heard that same sentiment expressed about anger: anger is like eating the poison and expecting the rat to die.

We can add: lack of compassion is like eating rat poison and expecting the rat to die.

If you wonder how you can allow compassion to arise, especially in those times and circumstances where it is clear we do not see things the same way, search Quotes Disagreement. Here are a few helpful hints:

Bertrand Russell:
“Love is wise; hatred is foolish. In this world, which is getting more and more closely interconnected, we have to learn to tolerate each other, we have to learn to put up with the fact that some people say things that we don’t like. We can only live together in that way. But if we are to live together, and not die together, we must learn a kind of charity and a kind of tolerance, which is absolutely vital to the continuation of human life on this planet.”

Friedrich Nietzsche:
“He who cannot put his thoughts on ice should not enter into the heat of dispute.”

Criss Jami:
“Together, we form a necessary paradox; not a senseless contradiction.”

Jonathan Swift:
“That was excellently observed’, say I, when I read a passage in an author, where his opinion agrees with mine. When we differ, there I pronounce him to be mistaken.”

These are not new concepts. However, all that is happening in the collective calls forth a need to live these values humanity holds in common, even when we have very different opinions: Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you. Matthew 7:1-3 (KJV)

I just posted a link to a very timely article titled, “No Time For Self-Care? Try These Snack-Size Habits,” on the Imagine Healing Facebook page. For those who do not have access to Facebook, trust me (or follow the link to scan the list of great suggestions for yourself) this is doable. Take a nap. Breathe slowly. Watch a favorite movie. Take a bath. Write in a journal. Exercise. Sing.

Self-care — like compassion, is not a luxury….

And a lovely reminder at the close of the article: You don’t have to do everything, but doing something small each day can and will have a cumulative effect on your capacity to deal with “the new normal,” “tremendous uncertainty,” and “unprecedented times.”

Deep Spring Center
Thought for Today

We do not state with an initial ego intention, ‘I’m going to save the world,’ but rather we start with the loving intention to see how we can dance with others and with the Earth and with spirit to co-create deeper peace and well-being for all sentient beings. We invite ourselves to be open and listen, to be guided, rather than having the ego dictate, ‘No, it should be this way.’ When you do this you find there truly are no limitations.