“Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else’s skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy for you too.”
-Author Fredrick Buechener
Choosing to have compassion means that possibly you will hurt more, but the love and joy will be doubled as the other person overcomes his or her struggle and comes into freedom.
“I thought I had to date perfectly!? Hummm…so that is part of what has been going on with me!” My mind rejoiced in uncovering one of the reasons why I didn’t start dating until in my thirties…I had thought I had to be perfect before I could date correctly, so the years dragged on. At that moment a few weeks ago, perfectionism had been producing anxiety in me as I interacted with my boyfriend. He wasn’t doing anything wrong; my head was pushing me to be perfect, to not mess up, and to not make any mistakes. However, while talking with him in his kitchen, it hit me: “I have been trying to be perfect in the whole dating sphere of my life! I thought I couldn’t make mistakes, and that it wouldn’t work if I did.” All that is a lie… Continue reading
Trees of Transition 