Thank you for this. Whenever I think about practicing compassion, I think of Metta (Loving Kindness Meditation). I started doing it with my kids when they were young as a way to introduce them to meditation (not my idea someone much smarter than me suggested it). The way we practice at night, we picture ourselves and say "may I be happy, may I be healthy, may I be at peace", then we pick a loved one and do the same thing, then someone we don't know or have strong feelings for, then someone who has given us a hard time or we don't like. And then end with "may all beings everywhere be at peace."
My kids tolerated it, but it was/is very powerful for me. I have strayed from the path a bit, but when I was really practicing, instead of yelling at the too slow driver, or the person that cut me off, I would instead say "may you be at ease". It really changed my commute (and I'm in the DC area so, lots of opportunity to practice).
I love what you have written about compassion and seeing how it feels in your body. I think that as I work to reincorporate a morning meditation practice, I can also become more curious about how compassion feels in my body.
Thank you so much for this. It's given me a lot to digest.
Growing up, I always wanted to transmit my pain (or maybe it was a learned behavior? I don't want to use that as a cop out, but I suspect there's some truth in there). I was a fat kid (and remain a fat adult)--not delightfully plump or softly round, but chair-breaking, getting-stuck-in-the-desk, "sorry sir you can't board this flight"-FAT. And I was suicidal. (5 years without an attempt, so no need to worry about that, but it's still a fight--and will always be.)
When I was a teenager, my favorite book was "Thirteen Reasons Why", my highest aspiration to be like Hannah, to end myself and leave behind a series of bombshells that would hurt and ruin all of the people that hurt me. I wanted to end my pain and transmit all of it back out, with interest.
Needless to say, that didn't work well. And during the black hole years of my early 20s, a grief-fueled depressive episode that lasted about 3 years, I ended up imploding a lot of relationships.
My solution to that has been isolation. Build up walls. Build up emotional distance. Don't make friends. Don't let anyone get close enough to leave any kind of wounds. Don't let anyone into the blast radius.
But you've given me hope that someday, I can learn to transform all of this. I don't have any idea how. But maybe I can make this area, this heart of mine, safe for people and wildlife again, kinda like the Chernobyl blast zone.
I read this not long after reading in my news feed that Rush Limbaugh had announced that he has advanced stage lung cancer. I lost my dad a little over a year ago to lung cancer. I have no affection for Limbaugh in the least beyond considering him as a fellow human being created in God’s image but this piece hit home. So processing this all I can do is feel compassion for Limbaugh and those he is close to. I consider myself a Christ follower so I will commit to pray for him but it’s gonna have to through the power of the Holy Spirit. Last week a friend who is a mom of young children shared an experience of being at the checkout of a grocery store when her toddler decided to have a meltdown. There were three women in line behind her who not only did not offer any help but instead made critical comments about her parenting. It wrecked her. My response to her besides offering sympathy/empathy was to ask “ why do people have to be so mean”? So yeah here’s to more compassion for one another put into words and actions. Thank you.
Oh how I love every ounce of this! The relatable reactions, the healing choice of transforming it... after not staying too long in the initial fuck you feeling. More importantly, the prayer for all that is, all that's felt, all we've done, who we are, have been, know, need, lost, what we think we've lost...to be washed away with a calling of RISE UP! From Jesus, from us, for ourselves, for each other. Man I needed this. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
I’m so sorry this parasite wrote such a horrible statement to you, what a piece of shit, I’m sorry I should be more compassionate, I’m sure that person is just transmitting there pain yet as good as Richard Rohr statement sounds I still have a difficult time finding an excuse for such hatred. I’ve been hurt, I’ve lived with emotional pain as I know many have but it takes a real devilish loser to say that evil shit. Your a bigger person than me Nadia Bolz - Weber , but what the person said is a special kind of evil and I believe that God would understand that this vessel of clay is ill equipped to to be so accommodating as to say their transmitting, Hell No ! What the person said is absolutely evil straight from the pit of hell. May God have mercy on such person and once again on behalf of the rest humanity , I’m so sorry they said that shit to you. Haters will be Haters you just Keep Shining !
What an absolutely stunning and beautiful prayer. Thanks for making it PUBLIC so I can share without my usual Catholic guilt! (I am a subscriber and have encouraged others to be) - this is just too spirit (radical - heartfelt spirit) inspired not to share. Keep letting the God within - peek without to cast light for us to find our own path of compassion, or at least pointed in that direction!
Nadia - Sometimes I think that you are to ministry what Lin Manuel Miranda is to theater.
That's the nicest thing anyone has said to me in a long time. xoxo
Thank you for this. Whenever I think about practicing compassion, I think of Metta (Loving Kindness Meditation). I started doing it with my kids when they were young as a way to introduce them to meditation (not my idea someone much smarter than me suggested it). The way we practice at night, we picture ourselves and say "may I be happy, may I be healthy, may I be at peace", then we pick a loved one and do the same thing, then someone we don't know or have strong feelings for, then someone who has given us a hard time or we don't like. And then end with "may all beings everywhere be at peace."
My kids tolerated it, but it was/is very powerful for me. I have strayed from the path a bit, but when I was really practicing, instead of yelling at the too slow driver, or the person that cut me off, I would instead say "may you be at ease". It really changed my commute (and I'm in the DC area so, lots of opportunity to practice).
I love what you have written about compassion and seeing how it feels in your body. I think that as I work to reincorporate a morning meditation practice, I can also become more curious about how compassion feels in my body.
Thank you so much for this. It's given me a lot to digest.
Growing up, I always wanted to transmit my pain (or maybe it was a learned behavior? I don't want to use that as a cop out, but I suspect there's some truth in there). I was a fat kid (and remain a fat adult)--not delightfully plump or softly round, but chair-breaking, getting-stuck-in-the-desk, "sorry sir you can't board this flight"-FAT. And I was suicidal. (5 years without an attempt, so no need to worry about that, but it's still a fight--and will always be.)
When I was a teenager, my favorite book was "Thirteen Reasons Why", my highest aspiration to be like Hannah, to end myself and leave behind a series of bombshells that would hurt and ruin all of the people that hurt me. I wanted to end my pain and transmit all of it back out, with interest.
Needless to say, that didn't work well. And during the black hole years of my early 20s, a grief-fueled depressive episode that lasted about 3 years, I ended up imploding a lot of relationships.
My solution to that has been isolation. Build up walls. Build up emotional distance. Don't make friends. Don't let anyone get close enough to leave any kind of wounds. Don't let anyone into the blast radius.
But you've given me hope that someday, I can learn to transform all of this. I don't have any idea how. But maybe I can make this area, this heart of mine, safe for people and wildlife again, kinda like the Chernobyl blast zone.
Love to you.
I read this not long after reading in my news feed that Rush Limbaugh had announced that he has advanced stage lung cancer. I lost my dad a little over a year ago to lung cancer. I have no affection for Limbaugh in the least beyond considering him as a fellow human being created in God’s image but this piece hit home. So processing this all I can do is feel compassion for Limbaugh and those he is close to. I consider myself a Christ follower so I will commit to pray for him but it’s gonna have to through the power of the Holy Spirit. Last week a friend who is a mom of young children shared an experience of being at the checkout of a grocery store when her toddler decided to have a meltdown. There were three women in line behind her who not only did not offer any help but instead made critical comments about her parenting. It wrecked her. My response to her besides offering sympathy/empathy was to ask “ why do people have to be so mean”? So yeah here’s to more compassion for one another put into words and actions. Thank you.
Whew. Thank you. I need some pastoring today....I needed a sister. And here you are.
AMEN and AMEN. This brought tears to my eyes.
Thank you deeply!
Hard to find compassion
Thank you for your prayer today. It is so helpful to me. I want to pray that prayer every day. God bless you!
That is just what I needed to hear. Wow! Thank you ❤
Oh how I love every ounce of this! The relatable reactions, the healing choice of transforming it... after not staying too long in the initial fuck you feeling. More importantly, the prayer for all that is, all that's felt, all we've done, who we are, have been, know, need, lost, what we think we've lost...to be washed away with a calling of RISE UP! From Jesus, from us, for ourselves, for each other. Man I needed this. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
I’m so sorry this parasite wrote such a horrible statement to you, what a piece of shit, I’m sorry I should be more compassionate, I’m sure that person is just transmitting there pain yet as good as Richard Rohr statement sounds I still have a difficult time finding an excuse for such hatred. I’ve been hurt, I’ve lived with emotional pain as I know many have but it takes a real devilish loser to say that evil shit. Your a bigger person than me Nadia Bolz - Weber , but what the person said is a special kind of evil and I believe that God would understand that this vessel of clay is ill equipped to to be so accommodating as to say their transmitting, Hell No ! What the person said is absolutely evil straight from the pit of hell. May God have mercy on such person and once again on behalf of the rest humanity , I’m so sorry they said that shit to you. Haters will be Haters you just Keep Shining !
Peace & Grace to you & yours
What an absolutely stunning and beautiful prayer. Thanks for making it PUBLIC so I can share without my usual Catholic guilt! (I am a subscriber and have encouraged others to be) - this is just too spirit (radical - heartfelt spirit) inspired not to share. Keep letting the God within - peek without to cast light for us to find our own path of compassion, or at least pointed in that direction!
Thank you. I needed this today.
Powerful and much appreciated.
Love is the only answer. There are evil sick people in this world and YOU are not one of them!!!