Choosing the Path of Compassion Today

Wednesday Wisdom.

Yesterday, at a meeting with my colleagues who are also school librarians (one of the many hats I am wearing these days), I listened to the stresses and strains of all of us who work in public education, and realized that the only real response was compassion.

It has been extremely frustrating for all of us to be given packed schedule with the expectations that we would accept and accommodate them. I expressed my concerns to my school administrator, tried to set some limits, but in the end I couldn’t change the schedule.

I ended up praying over the situation, because sometimes by bringing something to prayer, I can see the situation in another way. As I reflected on what was going on at my school, I began to more clearly understand the situation: there were too many needs and not enough resources. 

Could I respond with compassion to a situation I wanted to reject?

“As Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Zen monk, points out, ‘Compassion is a Verb.’ It is not a thought or a sentimental feeling but is a movement of the heart, writes Sharon Salzberg in her book, A Heart as Wide as the World,

What are the qualities of compassion? I developed my personal list: patience, understanding, an open heart, refraining from judgment and criticism, internal boundaries, kindness, and forgiveness. What would be on your list?

As I continue to pray over the situation, seeing the students, the teachers, principal, and my colleagues all dealing with it, the rings of compassion are multiplying in me.

These days I am filling my heart, mind, and body with the energy of compassion. It is penetrating in a deep, cellular place in me; a place where I can find surrender and rest.

I hear the noise on the surface, the noise of discontent, the noise of intolerance, but I choose to turn my attention towards compassion. I let it settle into me the way water soaks into the soil of my freshly planted white petunias.

Can you imagine compassion as water soaking into the soil of your being, and notice what it does to you and everyone and everything surrounding you. 

I believe we are all longing for compassion.

Reflection:

• How can we respond to ourselves and each other with deeper and deeper compassion?