What a perfect month to focus on compassion! Compassion brings together love, the highest, most powerful force in our universe, with hope, one of the things I love the most in this world. Through the extension of our hearts to one another, and to someone in need, compassion allows us to display the very best of our humanity.

Miracles happen when we are compassionate. Our hearts open wide and in place of the judgments we so often visit on one another is simply a quiet, steady love for another person. Through that act of selflessness, hope arises like a beacon from the darkness. 

We all need compassion, in much the same way we all need love. Compassion allows us to feel connected to another human being often when we feel very much alone. Whether our pain stems from the loss of a loved one, a bad decision or merely just a bad day, the compassionate presence of another person reminds us that we aren’t alone. Whether our compassionate friends are able to simply witness our pain with us and be there to support us physically, or whether their presence and/or actions can actually improve our situation in some way, hope has entered our hearts.

Compassion, whether we give it to ourselves or one another, impacts us in incredible ways. From a place of pain, a sliver of hope arrives that reminds us that at some point our pain will lessen, more joy will enter, and although we aren’t in the place that we’d like to be, at some point things will be better. The hope that arrives when compassion is offered, allows us to feel validated, witnessed, and heard. In those moments of compassion, judgment is suspended and in its place is what I believe is our natural state of embracing one another where we are.

For in truth, we are here to be there for one another, to help each other to grow, to help one another to heal, to share our joys and sorrows, and to validate for one another through our actions the incredible gifts we are to each other simply through our presence.

When we are in a place of needing compassion, we need to be reminded that we’re okay. We need to know that even though today or the next day may not feel good to us, that at some point in our lives, we will once again laugh, feel connected to other people, live fully once again.

In this month of holidays and celebrations, may your hearts be full of compassion for yourself, your families, friends, and everyone who is in need. Together, we can create miracles!