Dear Reader:

I find myself these days moving from  bench to  bench throughout my garden…(depending on the time of the day and the sun’s rays) so I can see the garden from a different perspective.

It is amazing how just a change of a few feet here or there can provide a different look and feel to my sanctuary. It is like changing pews at  your own church sanctuary…suddenly we see things going on during the service that we never noticed before.

Not only is our visual scope widened…but also our listening one.

Kate Wolfe-Jenson, in her Journey Dancing blog, made an observation today that made me pause and reflect.

Sharing Strength 

Kind Promise:    I will share strengths compassionately. 

My neighbor, Cindy gave me some basil. Cindy and her dog often visit me on their way to the park. Cindy chats about retirement and kayaking while her dog stands calmly at her side. Their rent-subsidized building is managed by the same company as mine. Cindy was on her way to deliver a batch of basil as a gift to the staff. As she separated a few sprigs for me, she explained that she is growing the herb in pots on her balcony. She has been surprised by its abundant growth and is happy to share.

Jenson shared this incident, as an example, of her friend’s giving of time, establishing a  relationship, and sharing from one’s personal abundance as this month’s “Kind Promise.”

Kind Promise:    I will share strengths compassionately. 

Her neighbor didn’t rush in and drop the herbs with her and dash out…letting her know how many more items on her check-off list still needed addressing…but instead she gave the gift of her personal time thus building an on-going relationship with another, and then she shared the one thing (in her personal life that helped identify her) that she had in abundance. Her herbs.

The origin of the word compassion means – to love together with strength and equality.

So if we take time to stop and listen to life…it is telling us to practice true compassion… where we are connected with and equal to each other in an abundant relationship.

Compassion is not one person doing something to help, sometimes out of guilt or forced obligation, but it is sharing our strength with another so our weaknesses and strengths balance…and achieve equality.

Compassion is a partnership…not a solo act.

I grew up having much compassion for my mother and her struggles with her physical challenges…but looking back now in reflection…my mother provided much compassion for me throughout our lives together. Her personal abundance was perseverance and faith and she generously demonstrated these “abundances” in how she lived each day of her life.

* I found this picture over the weekend…it was just marked Becky-three months old (since mother also had a toddler…my brother Ben who would have been about 2 1/2 years old… the circles under her eyes (once again) demonstrate that mothering is the hardest job in the world…all mothers deserve much compassion from everyone!

These gifts she shared with me have sustained me through some of my darkest and most challenging days.

Connection + Abundance + Equality = Strength.

So until tomorrow…Let us remember that strengths are to be share compassionately with one another.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* I kept Eva Cate and Jakie for John and Mandy to get an evening out…and ended up having such a fun time. Jakie got off schedule and was having trouble getting to sleep…so Jakie, Eva Cate and I all ended up on her bed…talking and listening to Jakie laugh who thought it was funny to share a bed with his sister.

Eva Cate and I propped up pillows around him and went into the living room to see if he would fall back asleep on Eva Cate’s bed…I kept walking by but nothing moved and I didn’t hear anything…finally I tip-toed in and there was Jakie, wide-awake lying on top of one of the propped up pillows calmly watching television from the open bedroom door.

I started laughing and Eva Cate joined in the fun….Taking time to listen to the sound of grandchildren’s laughter is a definite must-do when ‘we stop to listen to our lives. ‘