Appreciation and Compassion

From my perspective, as a fellow philosopher I admire expressed it, “Appreciation is contemplative.”  And from these moments of consideration may arise a renewed sense of compassion.

A special moment came to me when for the first time I realized that life experiences come to teach us something, to inspire us in deeper and wider levels of appreciation and/or to provide opportunities to support others in their own life processes.  The potential to help them expands through a developing sense of sensitivity to their needs.

Anthea Mitchell, a dear friend in Glastonbury, England shared the core of her understanding in ways I find meaningful.

“Compassion is another component of love:

   of loving with empathy, with understanding, with wisdom,

   with the beauty of sharing another’s pain

   and of wanting to help because you know,

   you really know, what they are going through.”

 Being compassionate is a virtue that adds significance to the experience of pain and suffering of others as if it were ours, opening the gates for inner communion in new ways with fellow relatives and friends.

In compassion an experience of completeness or wholeness in living resonates within us.  My favorite affirmation to bring into focus the theme at hand is, “I have found the sunshine of divine compassion.”   Always remembering, “that which we focus on, we strengthen.”

 Appreciation sparks beauty and a profound sense of unity with all that is.  It inspires refinement and strengthens a gift for creative self-expression.  Helen Rentsch, a fellow philosopher, enthusiastically said the joy of life is known when a person discovers that his or her deepest being is shared in appreciation by others, and increases when the individual becomes skillful in such sharing.

I rejoice thinking about compassion as one of the multiple riches in life’s journey.

By Mayte Picco-Kline

Read more inspiration from Mayte by purchasing her book. Click the book for purchase information.

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