In the super market the other day I glimpsed an older man guiding his frail wife around the aisles – the scene touched me in a very profound way. What amazing things emerge when we open our eyes and our hearts.

Perhaps we all have an impulse to care when faced with others in need. Whether we translate that impulse into action depends on how we deal with soem of the barriers to our natural impulse to care.

Spiritually grounded caring comes from compassion and not pity.

In this respect I have found this reflection helpful:

Compassion and pity are different. Wheres compassion reflects the yearning of the heart to merge and take on some of the suffering, pity is a controlled set of thoughts designed to assure separateness. Compassion is the spontaneous response of love; pity, the invlountary relflex of fear.

Who are we to ursleves and to oneanother? – it will all come down to that. Will we look within? Can we see that to be of most service to others we must face our own doubts, needs, and resistances?

Ram Dass and Gorman  How Can I help ? Knopf 1995

What hope for a more compassionate world? It starts with us.