Twelve steps to a compassionate life
In my year of One Word 2014: Compassion, I’m practicing one step per month from Karen Armstrong’s Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life. Learn about compassion How do you stay…
Read moreWhat Your Most Unlikely Friendship Can Teach You
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” — Arthur Ashe Remember the Connections I’ve missing my quirky friend Violet. Last month marked one year since…
Read more6 Lessons When Curiosity Meets Compassion
“Love and compassion grow when we see that there are really no viable alternatives.” – Joseph Goldstein While my One Word of the Year is Curiosity, I change subwords every…
Read moreWhen Compassion for Others Takes a Sharp Turn: A Lesson in Vulnerability
A Day of Compassion Begins I sit in a row of folding chairs in a neighborhood church gym, which today has been transformed into a blood donation center. My eyes…
Read moreUse Your Hands to Touch a Heart
The laundry room door cracked open. I could see her inside the room, tenderly folding each piece of clothing more gingerly than I fold my own family’s clothes. When she…
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“I’m not sure”—Is That Compassionate?
Embrace Uncertainty for Greater Compassion
“I began to notice how seldom we ‘make place for the other’ in social interaction. . . . Western society is highly opinionated.” – Karen Armstrong Is there a connection…
Read moreWhat Can I Do? For Now, This Is My Something
Can I Ask You Something? We chat outside her front door. It’s a normal Monday afternoon. She smiles and we make small talk until it’s time for me to move…
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