“When we practice generating compassion, we can expect to experience our fear of pain. Compassion practice is daring. It involves learning to relax and allow ourselves to move gently toward what scares us. The trick to doing this is to stay with emotional distress without tightening into aversion, to let fear soften us rather than harden into resistance.” ~ Pema Chödrön

 Oh, we all have our little life satchels do we not? These emotional suitcases that we pull along everywhere.

And, sometimes, we even forget what we’ve packed – until something so small it might rather have gone unnoticed, reminds us once again that it’s there.

Compassion, real compassion, takes courage. It requires that we ‘open those bags’ and share with our hearts all that we’ve kept tucked away these many years inside.

Compassion is daring – as it requires an opening that often leaves us feeling exposed…vulnerable…afraid. And, as humans, it’s natural to fear the unknown.

But, we must always at least try to remember – that compassion often makes ‘unknown’ its home.

And though, we may hesitate feeling our visit an intrusion – know that to compassion, we our presence is most eagerly awaited.