Thoughts on Compassion....

When other people make mistakes, we seek justice.
When we make mistakes, we seek compassion.
The lesson is to give to others what you seek.
 - Maura Cullen, "35 Dumb Things Well-Intended People Say"

The act of compassion begins with full attention,
just as rapport does.
You have to really see the person.
If you see the person, then naturally, empathy arises.
If you tune into the other person, you feel with them.
If empathy arises, and if that person is in dire need,
then empathic concern can come.
You want to help them, and then that begins a compassionate act.
So I'd say that compassion begins with attention.
 - Daniel Goleman

Pairs of Opposites

I was born to bridge the pairs of opposites,
to span the apparent distance between light and dark, joy and sorrow.
I exist to see past differences, to open my arms so wide that all I can see
and know and be is inside my reach.
I am here to give and receive love; so closely attuned to All That Is
that breathing is an act of passionate attraction.
I am not caught, but freed by the seeming contradictions between
seer and seen, knower and known.
In the tidal ebb and flow between lover and beloved
I explore the rugged coastline of surrender.
Danna Faulds

Be yourself, everybody else is taken.

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.
It turns what we have into enough, and more.
It turns denial into acceptance,
chaos to order, confusion to clarity.
It can turn a meal into a feast,
a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.
Gratitude makes sense of our past,
brings peace for today and 
creates a vision for tomorrow.
- Melody Beattie

Even as I rest my attention on the unwavering center, I see that nothing stays the same.  The moment is dynamic, changing.  When I try to frame it, freeze it, pin it down, I lose the fluidity of now.

My urge to grow nudges me beyond my comfort zone.  In order to evolve, I enter the unknown and become mobile, mutable, versatile.

Evolution and perection coincide, inviting me to expand my view until I see two as one, and one as the sum of every change and circumstance.  I savor this gift of living fully present with what is.   - Danna Faulds

The greatest wisdom is in simplicity.  Love, respect, tolerance, sharing, gratitude, forgiveness.  It's not complex or elaborate.  The real knowledge is free.  It's encoded in your DNA.  All you need is within you.  Great teachers have said that from the beginning. Find your heart, and you will find your way.  --  Carlos Barrios/Mayan Elder

The truth will set you free but first it will piss you off.

Letting there be room for not knowing is the most important thing of all.    Pema Chodron