COMPASSION

I was daydreaming this afternoon, not really thinking about anything.  Slowly things intensified - the room around me, my sense of being - and then I was simply flooded with love for the world. Everything was rich, fluid, and I was connected to everything, all that is, but something more, connected to a world of endless possibility. My body and my spirit reached out to embrace it; I felt myself open to whatever the mystery is at the heart of the world.  No fear.  No concepts and ideas. Only the expanding universe of love.
     When the feeling faded, I was left thinking about compassion, and how when we feel it we are opening up our love for the world. To feel the pain of another's struggles, to reach out with kindness, to want to help, to say, I hear you - there's selflessness in that.The focus shifts outward, we are giving out the best part of ourselves and that's when love can come flooding in.  
     I know I can't will myself into moments like I had this afternoon. What I can do is prepare the way so that those gorgeous feelings can come again. I can set an intention, to be alert to others, to listen and empathize, to acknowledge the kindness of others, to notice the beauty in the world around me. It's one of great paradoxes of the spirit that turning attention outward is so often the way to feel in yourself that brimming over of love.