I Suck (sometimes… ); You Suck (sometimes) YAY!

ByMatthew

Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity. – Pema Chodron

Isn’t it great that no one is perfect?

Well, we are perfect beings, it’s just our behavior isn’t always so perfect.

But I digress.

I love how Chodron’s words remind us that be truly be compassionate we need to remember, and acknowledge/accept, that we have darkness too – we have shadow aspects.

These shadows only persist and have power though to extent that we deny and hide from them.

Similar Posts

  • An Alternative to Denial

    ByMatthew

    Not facing a fire doesn’t put it out. Tennessee Williams The Japanese word Kaizen means (small and continuous) improvement. The making better of things, over time. Rather than confronting issues, problems and long-festering wounds “head-on” with a Hollywood-action-movie-like-grandiosity, what if you identified a particular component of an issue or problem or long-festering wound and took…

  • What Can You Do?

    ByMatthew

    You might not want to do everything you imagine, but you can’t do anything you can’t imagine doing. I pondered over the above words a fair amount. I wanted them to be expansive and positive, while still defensible against critics and pessmists. I wanted them to strike a balance between what people often see as…

  • Want a Door? MAKE a Door

    ByMatthew

    Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door. – Coco Chanel The only time you should beat on a wall is if you are (hitting it in such a way that you’re) making a hole for a door. Feebly pounding on or flailing against a wall in the hopes it will…

  • How To *Give* Thanks

    ByMatthew

    If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share. – W. Clement Stone Today is Thanksgiving here in the good ol’ USA and while some will be scrambling for some “Door Buster Sale” item or some other essentially unobtainable bargain, I suggest that we 1) don’t engage in any “shopping-like” activity and 2)…

  • A Word on Motivation

    ByMatthew

    It just occurred to me that maybe I’ve never really understood “motivation.” Oh sure, I’ve learned that it’s better to be inspired than motivated and better to motivated than coerced. But what is motivation, really? Motivation isn’t something real or actual. It’s a word that describes what happens when one puts a motive into action….