Finding compassion,
The Journey belongs to no one.
I come home to now.
This haiku came to me as I was sitting with my morning coffee today. And as I repeated it with each breath in meditation, its power facilitated a release in my body and mind. I found my mind settling in with solid purpose, realizing that one of the highest available pursuits offered is to tap the incredible power of experiencing compassion from moment to moment. Every moment of our lives can be bombarded with concern, worry, planning, scheming, sorting, and navigating the constant stream of information, opportunities, and threats. From within our closest relationships to the events and condition of our world, we must deal with never ending stimulation, calling us to make a response of some kind lest we become inundated.
Choosing to find compassion in each moment, each encounter, and around each thought gives us a sense of purpose and power unlike any other reaction can. The experience of compassion within us fuels an inner power, mobilizing us to think creatively while reassuring our hearts and spirits that we are never alone, that we are good and whole, and that our worth is not bound by what we have done or what we will do. Whether I am arguing with my partner or child, scrambling to get out the door with my coffee, opening up the office and checking my calendar, or negotiating a new business relationship, finding compassion for myself and others in each moment grants me a source of clarity and peace that guides and supports every interaction. I see my worry as natural and understandable, I understand deeper my partner’s unconscious words as coming from her fear or hurt, and I engage my child’s grumpy resistance as his need to know his autonomy and worth. When I choose to dial in to their words and actions with compassion, I know I do not have to fix them, I know what they need for this moment. And I also know how much is within me that I have to give them.
From this place, I no longer have to take ownership for finding the right answers, the right thing to say, the right solution to mine or anyone else’s struggle. I am not responsible for making everything OK. I can be with them and myself more completely, just being together without any habitual impulse or reflex messing things up. I do not need to produce any special wisdom, because the experience of having compassion for them and myself in the moment is enough. Being together with them deeply is sufficient for now, and settling into this knowledge empowers me in the next moment to freely choose what is needed for then.
In this I come home: both within myself in the moment and to the people and situations around me. My coming home empowers them to come home, for us to be home, together. When we regularly come home to this moment, we discover the truth that there is no dire ‘somewhere’ we need to move on to, and we discover, over and over, that by the end of the day, we have accomplished and produced so much more of value within ourselves and our world.
