But compassion is a deeper thing that waits beyond the tension of choosing sides. Compassion, in practice, does not require us to give up the truth of what we feel or the truth of our reality. Nor does it allow us to minimize the humanity of those who hurt us. Rather, we are asked to know ourselves enough that we can stay open to the truth of others, even when their truth or their inability to live up to their truth has hurt us.
Interpretation
Compassion involves understanding others' truths without sacrificing our own feelings, even when hurt.
This quote by Mark Nepo highlights the profound nature of compassion, suggesting it transcends the simple act of choosing sides in conflicts. True compassion allows us to acknowledge our emotions and experiences while still remaining open to the realities of others, fostering a deeper connection and understanding, especially in situations of pain and hurt.
In practice
During a speech on community support, one might use the quote to stress the importance of empathetic understanding.
Four hundred year old trees, who draw aliveness from the earth like smoke from the heart of God, we come, not knowing you will hush our little want to be big; we come, not knowing that all the work is so much busyness of mind; all the worry, so much busyness of heart. As the sun warms anything near, being warms everything still and the great still things that outlast us make us crack like leaves of laurel releasing a fragrance that has always been.
Whatever difficulty you face, there are time-tried ways you can listen your way through. Because listening is the doorway to everything that matters. It enlivens the heart the way breathing enlivens the lungs. We listen to awaken our heart. We do this to stay vital and alive.
Let's be in awe which doesn't mean anything but the courage to gape like fish at the surface breaking around our mouths as we meet the air.
Water reflects everything it encounters. This is so commonplace that we think water is blue, when in fact it has no color.... But the water, the glorious water everywhere, has taught me that we are more than what we reflect or love. This is the work of compassion: to embrace everything clearly without imposing who we are and without losing who we are.
The further I wake into this life, the more I realize that God is everywhere and the extraordinary is waiting quietly beneath the skin of all that is ordinary. Light is in both the broken bottle and the diamond, and music is in both the flowing violin and the water dripping from the drainage pipe. Yes, God is under the porch as well as on top of the mountain, and joy is in both the front row and the bleachers, if we are willing to be where we are.
We work so hard to get somewhere, to realize a dream, to arrive at some destination, that we often forget that though some satisfaction may be waiting at the end of our endurance and effort, there is great and irreplaceable aliveness in the steps along the way.
I sincerely hope I can contribute to the progress there has been in relations between Jews and Catholics since the Second Vatican Council in a spirit of renewed collaboration.
People will not lend you a hand until you first touch their hearts.
Dissensions between Muslim nations run at least as deep, if not deeper, than those nations' resentment of the West.
When people ask what I write about, that's what I tell them: 'The drama of human relationships.' I'm not even close to running out of material.
It seems essential, in relationships and all tasks, that we concentrate only on what is most significant and important.
Forget sex or politics or religion, loneliness is the subject that clears out a room.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.