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Not My Enemy
“We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other’s children.”
—Jimmy Carter
“As we develop compassion, our hearts open.”
—Sharon Salzberg
If we could sit down with people and listen to their stories—setting aside our religious, political, racial, ethnic, gender, sexual, and cultural differences—we would discover that we have all experienced loss.
If someone has lost a child, that person deeply grieves. If someone has lost a spouse, a parent, a sibling, or a friend, that person mourns.
Our hearts hurt when the people we love die. Our hearts hurt when we see suffering in our families, in our communities, and in the world. We extend compassion because we care and because we are all part of this human family, despite the hurts we inflict upon one another.
We don’t have to make enemies of the people who are different from us—or with the people who disagree with us. That doesn’t mean we don’t hold individuals (or groups) accountable for actions that harm others. It also doesn’t mean we tolerate unacceptable behavior, from anyone. We can be loving individuals while also establishing healthy boundaries and enforcing appropriate consequences as needed.
But perhaps, if we soften our hearts, we can learn how to be more centered in kindness, forgiveness, and love during our daily human interactions. We might even learn to set aside longstanding grievances over land, politics, or religion and instead work for the sake of something larger, something that helps all people who share our planet.
Perhaps we could ask: Is there a spiritual solution here that would benefit the next generation of children? If we could answer that question, what would we do differently?
As we enter the holiday season, what in your heart needs healing? What in your heart needs compassion or forgiveness? What in your heart needs to change?
Peace & Love,
Diana Ensign
Hello Diana, I love the challenge in your reflection, making the deep spiritual qualities you discuss, come home to ask, “what is required of me? How can I change and grow?” I will take these important points made in your reflection into my Advent quiet and hopefully let them guide me to how I can change and heal. Thank you and Advent blessings to you!
Good day Charlie. Inner reflection certainly helps me understand better what is mine to do (or not to do), with love and compassion. Blessings to you on your journey.
peace,
Diana
Greetings Diana,
I believe our own minds must stay conscious to all that the Presence has to offer us. Society and governance strutures must change and that feels almost hopeless with what is going on in our world. But if I can find that silent space in my own inner world and project that ‘softening heart’, I believe there is still hope left on our planet Earth. Hope without loving presence as an action will most likely not get us where our world needs to go. So I think that softening heart must present itself in words and deeds that plant the seeds for a growing world filled with love.
Thanks for what you do. Lovingly, Karen Brown
Beautifully said Karen!
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and your presence—as well as your loving actions—with so many.
peace & love to your day,
: )
Diana