“Love never dies.”
– multiple sources
“You have to understand the purpose of life.
The purpose of life is to do something which will live forever.”
– Yogi Bhajan
To use compassion and empathy means shifting perspective by putting ego aside and at least imagining what it’s like to be in someone else’s shoes. The willingness to look for the best instead of the worst in people. Judging less and being open to learning and growing. Asking questions instead of assuming. Putting ego aside to show kindness and love.
Perhaps the act of loving is the combination of compassion, empathy, and kindness.
“Love is putting someone else’s needs before yours.”
– Olaf, Frozen
I used this quote eleven months ago in Someone Else’s Needs, just after the winter holidays. With it coming to mind just after the Thanksgiving holiday and before the winter holidays, may our focus shift to the love behind what we give. Love will outlast whatever is attached to a price tag.
The rest of this post is what led me to remember that love is an undying energy underneath it all. May love for humanity guide us to use more compassion, empathy, and kindness.
Luceat lux vestra.
Time Doesn’t Stop…
…and even though I started this post yesterday, I went with the flow. I published an in media res post, Abundance of Kindness: Paying It Forward. Receiving a random act of kindness the day after writing a post about kindness made more sense than what I had planned. It felt like a manifestation of “kindness breeds kindness”, the universe’s attraction to action, and a call to make good on my words and let my actions speak.
This morning after looking at my Facebook memories from eight years ago, the Dogma quote below provides more fullness for writing about perspectives.
“I think it’s better to have ideas. You can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier. Life should be malleable and progressive; working from idea to idea permits that. Beliefs anchor you to certain points and limit growth; new ideas can’t generate. Life becomes stagnant.”
– Rufus, Dogma
While I was writing Kindness: Keeping the Darkness at Bay, perspectives came to mind. I even touched on it in my blog post on Sunday. I forget what day I saw this quote, but it’s taken me a few days to fully appreciate it:
“The moon doesn’t go through phases. Our perspective of the moon goes through phases. No matter what the calendar says, the moon is always full. Regardless of someone’s opinion, perspective, or inability to see it as a whole and complete, the moon is unapologetically full. I find wisdom and strength in this truth.”
– Steve Maraboli
The phases of the moon. The illuminated part that we see from earth. The limit of our physical perspective within the universe. With imagination and what we know about the solar system, we may be able to use our mind’s eye to envision what earth and its moon look like from other spots in the universe. I felt my perspective limited me in more than looking at the moon.
Twenty-one years ago, Dogma felt very relatable. Growing up Catholic, I had more questions as I got older because some things didn’t make sense within Catholicism and a high-level look at different religions. College provided the opportunity to study world religions as well as a different population where I could meet and speak with people of other religions. Combining an academic view and a others’ personal views/experiences of religion not only helped to shine a light on what each has in common, but also moved me further into how religions “can’t all be right, but they can all be wrong”. I felt liberated when I was no longer trying to find the one that made the most sense.
The idea of being more wrong than right went beyond religion because I realized that my own perspective, my own ego, limited me. For example, without knowing what someone else is going through, what they’re thinking or what experiences shaped them, my ideas about them could be all wrong.
Back to the top!
Luceat lux vestra.
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