THE DAILY SPARK

Awareness may not diminish the enormity of our pain in all circumstances.  It does provide a bigger basket for tenderly holding and intimately knowing our suffering in any and all circumstances, and that it turns out is transformative and healing.FROM:  ARRIVING AT YUR OWN DOOR  108 Lessons in Mindfulness by Jon Kabat-ZinnREFLECTION: What is a pain or struggle you are dealing with now? How can you expand your awareness ? Can you pause ... breathe... reflect and respond from a more mindful way? TRY IT!

The question we must ask ourselves everyday is which is more debilitating: to be cut off from love or to be scarred by the pain of being hurt?FROM:  THE BOOK OF AWAKENING  Having the Life You Want By Being Present To The Life You Have by Mark NepoREFLECTION:Which is more debilitating for you ?Reflect on a current relationship challenge. Are you willing to risk the scar and pain to love or do you prefer to remain cut off?When ready, take that step to engage and love.

"Perhaps the final step in the healing of all wounds is the discovery of the capacity for compassion, an intuitive knowing that no one is singled out in their suffering, that all living beings are vulnerable to loss, attachment and limitation.  It is only in the presence of compassion that we can show our wounds without diminishing our wholeness.  For those who have compassion, woundedness is not a place of judgment but a place of genuine meeting.  Quote from MY GRANDFATHER'S BLESSINGS: Stories of Strength, Refuge and Belonging by Rachel Naomi Remen REFLECTION: Do you have a wound that taught you a lesson? Examine a current 'wound."  How can this show you the way to compassion?   How can you reframe your woundedness to a place of authentic meeting?