Journal Response: Week 11

Yesterday I shared a journal prompt with the Journaling Community I started, Cathartic Clarity. This week, I’ve decided to merge my weekly Journal Prompts and Responses with my blog. Below is the journal response that came about when I wrote from that stem. Enjoy!

Journal Prompt: “To me in this moment, authentic compassion means . . . ”

To me in this moment, authentic compassion means listening deeply to those around me in equal measure to the depth in which I also listen to myself, my body, my dreams, and my heartaches. Listen, not just to the words shared, for words alone are clumsy and never tell the fullest truth.

Listen instead to the intention behind the words, and listen not with your ears but with the intention of listening. Listen not just to the thoughts unspoken, but perhaps listen to the dreams unlived. Listen from a space of your highest possible self, and you will begin to hear only the highest possible self in others.

To me in this moment, authentic compassion means responding to ourselves and others without fear of offending or exploiting. Authentic compassion is a response born out of sincerity and integrity: born of honoring ourselves in equal measure to the degree in which we honor another. It’s knowing deeply that we don’t have all the answers, and that some of the answers we have found are subject to change based on time and circumstance.

In that light, to me in this moment, authentic compassion means bowing with humble gratitude to this miracle of experience, this miracle of perception, this miracle of connection, and this miracle of collaboration towards shared visions. By listening to the miracles more deeply than we do the words or actions of ourselves or another, we become a pristine beacon of authentic compassion.