Plato said, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.”
This was a tough week for many sentient beings across the planet. As I sit to write this post, two songs stream back to back, the first Natural Blues by Moby followed by The Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel, both seemingly apropos. There were a variety of challenges for myself, family, friends and even some four legged friends I know. There were situations that threw us off our rhythm, brought a sense of despondency and at times even death. I hate to sound cliche but these are unsettled times.
This has also been a week of growth. I view the growth from a sort of collective voice. Please know I certainly don’t want to trivialize anyone’s experiences, but I have seen similarities in these opportunities of growth. Many are being asked to dig much deeper than we’ve had to before. Some have been asked to go way beyond their comfort zones and ask for help. We’ve been given the opportunity to get vulnerable with an other and to allow others to be there for us. We’ve also had to come up with new strategies to address the situations before us.
Through my observation of the similarities in the approaches of meeting these challenges, I’ve been witnessing incredible gifts of compassion in others and quite frankly in myself as well. It’s as if as the pendulum swings far to one side, bringing with it pain and sorrow, and then so shall the pendulum swing to the opposite side, bringing with it openhearted conversations, new levels of self reflection, and a deeper compassion for self and others. If there had been no pain this week, I probably wouldn’t be on day 5 of my blog. I probably wouldn’t have applied for new jobs. My husband might not have explored new paths this week that he’s been procrastinating about. We wouldn’t have gotten to support my cousin tonight as she went through a move alone. I know that I had more real and raw conversations this week than I have had in a long time.
A woman at work has been telling me about the weight she’s been feeling between care taking for her mother and not being able to find harmony in her work environment. She’s had to deal with these challenges for awhile, but this week she expressed all she wanted to do was run. Instead, this morning before dawn, she cooked an incredible meal. How do I know? She prepared it for my husband and I. She said you’re in for a treat because I cook some of my best meals when I need to heal. When I got home from work I went straight to my cousin’s house. We picked up something for her to eat along the way and brought some food from home for my husband and I. We thought we would eat when there was a lull. What we were thinking, lulls don’t happen on moving day! When we arrived, my heart just exploded with compassion and all I wanted to do was assist my cousin in getting her comfortable as she tried to manage in her new space. My husband and I didn’t get home until after 9 and then heated up the food my co-worker had prepared. The food was incredible. I was struck that my cousin’s need gave us an opportunity to be of service, and because of my co-workers pain she chose to give something to us. It seems that somehow there’s a perfect symmetry to it all. Without my need, I may not welcome you in and without your need, I don’t get to help you. And then we would all just lead these isolated lives, going it alone. I don’t think that’s the way it’s supposed to go. While I don’t wish the darkness I’ve seen this week on anyone, I do believe it is in that darkness we find the light in and of each other.
“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”
―
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