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Compassion
Sympathetic consciousness
of others' distress, together with a desire to
alleviate it
The Power of Compassion
Happy Spring everyone
(well, almost spring). It's just a few days
away. I hope the New Year has found you to be
excited about your opportunities and equipped
with a positive attitude and motivation to take
action and prove successful.
Being realistic in regard to what I can achieve
and do well has been one of my goals for 2011.
In that regard, you may have noticed that while
you received a newsletter in January, you did
not in February. I've decided, for now at least,
to write the newsletter every other month. It
gives me more time to not only determine what
topic to share with you, but more time to sit
with and contemplate how to discuss it. I feel
less harried, less stressed and more joyful and
"positive". These are things I wish for all of
you. Let's all move forward at a reasonable
pace.
The topic of choice for this newsletter is
Compassion and the amazing power it holds. As
I've thought about it over the past several
weeks, this very topic has made itself known to
me a number of times. I signed on to the
Internet and saw an article about compassion as
one of the morning's offerings. A friend's blog
commentary focused significantly on compassion.
Two women in the grocery store were talking
about what the world could use more of now is
compassion. And I concur with that sentiment.
The dictionary's description of compassion is
sympathetic consciousness of others' distress,
together with a desire to alleviate it. For me,
compassion is certainly resonating with someone
else's challenges and wanting to do something to
help them. Sometimes the situation can seem so
overwhelming I wonder what one person can do.
When I read, for example, how many people in
this country - in this world - go hungry every
day, I feel compassion. Or, when I see the
statistics on illiteracy. Illiteracy = lack of
education = equal lack of formidable survival
skills. I can imagine what it might be like to
go hungry or pick up a book and not be able to
read it. How disconnected this would cause me to
feel! Oh, the things many of us take for
granted. But, one person can make a difference.
When I'd get up early and volunteer at the food
bank, I was helping a little. When I sent, with
the help of friends, over 2,000 books to a
community in need in Africa, I helped a little.
We can show compassion. We can give of
ourselves. We can make a difference.
Do you stop and feel compassion for others? If
so, do you follow up with action? Every little
bit does help, and yes, you - one person - can
make a difference.
So, the next time you feel compassion and a
desire to do something, put it into action. You
may never know to what extent your input impacts
another's life, but believe that it does. I've
always liked the Mahatma Gandhe quote, "Be
the change you want to see in the world."
Let's collectively do that, shall we?
Quotes About Compassion
Compassion is sometimes
the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like
to live inside somebody else's skin. It is the
knowledge that there can never really be any
peace and joy for me until there is peace and
joy finally for you too.
~Frederick Buechner (American Author.b.1926)
If you want others to be happy, practice
compassion. If you want to be happy, practice
compassion.
~Dalai Lama
Compassion will cure more sins than
condemnation.
~Henry Ward Beecher (Liberal US
Congregational minister, 1813-1887)
It is lack of love for ourselves that
inhibits our compassion toward others. If we
make friends with ourselves, then there is no
obstacle to opening our hearts and minds to
others.
~Author Unknown
Compassion is not religious business, it is
human business, it is not luxury, it is
essential for our own peace and mental
stability, it is essential for human survival.
~Dalai Lama
Compassion is the desire that moves the
individual self to widen the scope of its
self-concern to embrace the whole of the
universal self.
~Arnold Toynbee (English Economic Historian
and social reformer, 1889-1975)
Events Calendar
March 2011
Milford, Connecticut
Adult Education Classes
Dream Interpretation Workshop
Date: Monday, March 7, 2011
Time: 7-9 pm
Location: LAW HS, Room 170
Milford, CT
Register: call (203) 783-3461
April 2011
Psychic Fair
Angel card readings and messages
Date: Sunday, April 3, 2011
Time: 11am - 4pm
Cost: $20 for 20 minutes
Location: Mystics By The Sea
394 New Haven Avenue
Milford, CT
Information: (203) 878-5640
Reinventing Retirement Monthly Meeting
Positivity Presentation based on Lynette's
book, The 10 Be's of Positivity
Date: Monday, April 11, 2011
Time: 7-9pm
Location: Golden Hill Health Care Center
2028 Bridgeport Avenue, Milford, CT
A special thank you to Pat Durner for her help
with this newsletter. You are appreciated!
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