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Circles of Caring, Healing, and Transformation
It was many years ago that I first heard the term and reflected on the idea of "circles of caring." One of my teachers/mentors, the author James Garbarino, described in one of the many books of his that I have, how different a circle of caring would look for a youth who has grown up suffering under the weight of grueling poverty, abuse, isolation, and violence than someone else who has consistently experienced safety, love, connection, and a deep sense of compassion weaving through his or her life.
And right then and there the perception that took root in my heart that we humans can work in an ongoing way to become mindful of and to then expand our circles of caring. I'd never even thought of circles of caring before! A new story to live by was gifted to me! We can become more aware of what we value and care about, and we can live with the powerful intention to keep expanding and expanding what we experience as our circle of caring. This is a POWERFUL intention!! It is among so many things that have profoundly changed my life.
Last night I left work and saw a newly killed squirrel in the middle of the road near my work. Sadness in my heart... This morning, driving into work, I noticed that that dead squirrel had been moved by someone off to the shoulder of the road. Acts of random kindness... Then I noticed that next to the little dead squirrel was sitting a little living squirrel who was flapping its tail around, sniffing at the dead squirrel, and appearing to be in obvious distress. In my being I felt this other being grieving a loss. I could feel this sadness, this shared sadness. What a gift.
I used to just be numb... to so much! And today I don't believe there is such thing as being "comfortably numb." Although there may be the illusion that this is true. What I know through my own experience is that the underbelly of numb is great suffering. It hurts us to be disconnected from ourselves, from one another, from other beings, from our Earth Mother, from Life and Love. Just because we don't feel our pain - because we're busy smoking pot or having an affair or shopping till we drop or freakin' pissed off or locked into finger pointing or judgment or us vs them, etc., etc. - doesn't mean that we aren't hurting. Truly, we would not be engaging in those distractions to being present to our own precious life - and those of others - if we weren't hurting.
I am aware of compassion...
Gratefully, my heart keeps breaking open in response to life's 10,000 joys and 10,000 sorrows. I am not compelled to just shut down, shut out, shut up anymore! Gratefulness! And as as I open my heart again and again and again, my circle of caring grows and grows. Each year that I am alive it is bigger yet. YAY!!
May we all care more and more. May we see and heal those obstacles that keep us from more deeply living out of the love that is the essence of our true nature.
With love & blessings,
Molly
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
~ Rumi
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