Welcome to The Compassionary

Happy Hello to all! Welcome. This is The Compassionary, a new blog to kick off a new year, to encourage a new focus and to celebrate a diverse array of voices from the universal roots of spirituality: what we share, not what divides us. From our conversation, ideas will materialize. From clearly-articulated ideas, actions in our own communities. We're building a community capacity for Love.

Two years ago, I came into contact with the writings of Karen Armstrong. I started with "The Case for God" and was hungry for more. In my research, I found details about the TED prize, won by Armstrong, and the Charter for Compassion: her healing wish for a broken world. The Charter moved me, intrigued me. It seemed so simple, yet some how out of reach. I picked up Armstrong's newest book, the inspirational "Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life," sort of a manual on how to refocus and retool. I was moved to action. Follow the link below for more details.
 
http://www.amazon.com/TWELVE-COMPASSIONATE-Armstrong-Compassionate-Hardcover/dp/B004HJHY9K/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1357059332&sr=8-4&keywords=twelve+steps+to+a+compassionate+life+by+karen+armstrong

Much of the information was familiar: intuitive steps that I had under my belt, or so I thought, and historical context for how humanity (through our life stories) already had what it was looking for, or so IT thought. I'll tell you, though, the whole thing consumed my thoughts, prayers, hopes, actions... so I gave my new philosophical crush a name: The Compassioning Project. It was a personal commitment project. I was the founder. I listed it on my Facebook page (grin). I read, prayed, changed jobs, struggled with things I had done my best to avoid before. My relationships with people of other faith traditions were strengthening, my awareness of the beautiful works exhibited by those without faith traditions stood out. I came to a crystal clear awareness that this movement toward a more compassionate life, a deeper purpose, had been in the works in me for years! Good grief! Or maybe, Eureka! My life was forever changed by what I like to call a series of epiphalectic moments: my capacity for what I wanted was already installed. It just hadn't been fully accessed. Maybe full access was more than coffee bean prayers, church membership or reading lists (even though I was steeped in each of these things.) Maybe others were feeling the same thing. I started with myself.

Today, this yearning is about living what rings most important, not just to myself, but to all of us - the largest possible version of family - the human family. Truth comes in open conversation, in living the Love (turns out it wasn't just a philosophical crush), in finding the Holy in each and every person. It comes from these revelations made active!

These are compassionary times, full of epiphalectic moments. Perhaps our conversation will grow our collective frame of reference. Each week, I'll write from my experience, sharing some ideas, perhaps a prompt or two for prayers and meditations. You are invited to contribute as well!!!  How have you experienced compassion in your own life, given to you or given from you? How did these events build your capacity for Love? What have been some of your epiphalectic moments?

My plan is to invite family and close friends to get us started. I'll ask others to post blog entries twice a week. We should have new stuff to read every other day. Anyone reading the blog who would like to submit a story to post, please do. Send them to thecompassionary@gmail.com. Please include the best ways to get in touch with you. Hopefully the conversation will enrich all of us to the next steps: building compassionate actions in our local communities, modeling kindness and the golden rule. This blog is to stimulate TALK that can and will be WALKED!

Thanks for reading.
Shalom.

Jean