Embracing Fallibility
Many of us live in a punitive, carceral type of society that can make it difficult to have compassion for ourselves or others. It's an era of the glorification of…
compassion
Realistic Faith: Strength for Those Who Look
It can be hard to keep working to show people that N95s and cleaning air will actually significantly reduce the number of sick, disabled, and dying in our communities. Here…
On Hearing Others
Louis Cozolino’s beautifully written book on neuroscience has an explanation near the end about our necessary interconnectedness. Communication from one body part to anther happens when messages throughout our body…
I Needed This Today
Another curious human behaviour: Just by chance, I posted every day for over a week last May rather than my typical range of anywhere from one to twelve posts in…
Breathe, Grieve, Love, Repeat
We have very little direct influence over one another but we do affect one another in myriad ways that we often don’t even notice. I had a student once, about…
Intersecting Crises: The Winning Mindset
An article from a year ago came my way, about how the super-rich ‘preppers’ are planning to save themselves from the apocalypse. Douglas Rushkoff was hired by some über rich…
Faith, Hope & Love, During Difficult Times
Now is a time for faith. Or if you prefer, and perhaps more important yet: for perseverance, for patience, for forbearance, for resolve, for courage, for confidence, for…
You Have to Read This – A Beautiful Fable for Caregivers
About a year ago, I opened an email message from someone I’d never met called Diane S. who wrote to tell me that this blog was meaningful to her. It…
On Maintaining Firm Categories: Do Labels Matter?
This link about people on the spectrum came to my FB feed as “Sponsored Content,” so I’m wary at the get go, but they present this argument to be addressed:…
Ollie and pet rescue
We are suckers for the face of a cat at the window, a hungry cat, a cold cat, a lost cat, a cat someone has abandoned to fend for themselves…
The Emperor of Caregiver Talents: Kindness
The problem with kindness is that we take it for granted. We assume that it will be there when we suffer and need it the most. But human kindness is…
A few thoughts on empathy in human beings, and other living creatures
Empathy is natural in human beings, as Jeremy Rifkin has pointed out – and with strong backing by recent scientific findings. Some human beings have more and some less; and…
The Lies I Tell
This video got me thinking about how I have lied to my loved ones. I lied to Nicholas when I said it would be alright after his hip surgery (the…
Special Words and Deeds to Support a Caregiver’s Hurting Heart
Recently, I wrote about friends who aren’t sure how to support a caregiver in distress. I talked about how difficult it is for caregivers themselves to know how anyone could…
Compassion creates happiness, freedom and better relationships
Kozo Hattori, a writer and counselor, explains how compassion creates happiness, freedom from gender stereotypes, and better relationships with others. The post Compassion creates happiness, freedom and better relationships appeared…
A Compassionate Buddha?
There’s a story in Valerie Roebuck’s translation of the Dhammapada (Penguin Classics, 2010, commentary on verse 6, p 115-116) that caught my eye recently, and it made me wonder what…
“I’m speaking with you as a human being and you’re talking at me as a politician.”
"I'm speaking with you as a human being and you're talking at me as a politician."— Melissa Fong (@internationalmf) April 21, 2014 When you ask me to open up
Miserable People Sow Misery (Or fascism, genocide, violence, hatred, war…)
Miserable People Sow Misery:Be Compassionate To All Beings – Including Yourself Miserable people often love schadenfreude – evil joy: taking delight in other’s sufferings, failures or faults. It’s disgusting. No…