Am I a Compassionate Person?
Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 9 seconds
My MIT (mensh-in-training) studies continue daily.
Although there are no exams, I must ensure I do not fail my studies.
As a widow with an unknown number of days left, I seek meaning and purpose. Viktor Frankl’s Men’s Search for Meaning has been a guidepost multiple times.
My focus these days is on how to become a compassionate person.
Compassion is the basis of morality.
On my walk to Walgreens, I passed the home where I had talked to the owner a few years ago. Someone new lives there now.
“I am the only non-American here,” he said.
I responded, “We are all Americans here.”
Granted, Jan’s illness and my grief journey have kept me away from his street for the last four years.
But couldn’t I have stopped by on my many trips to the store? We only loved three-quarters of a mile apart?
The Jan Lilien Education Fund sponsors ongoing sustainability and environmental awareness programs. Gifts made this month; I will match dollar-for-dollar. All donations are tax-deductible.
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My family, friends, and the members of my Zoom and Signal support groups have been empathetic and supportive of me.
Without their support, I would not be where I am on my grief journey.
Today I re-read this short essay from Albert Schweitzer's Reverence for Life and was reassured that genuine kindness is possible if we do not allow our hearts to grow numb.
If only you would stop being thoughtless and stop flinching from the challenge to learn reverence for life and true empathy, if only you could be absorbed in compassionate awareness, I would rest content. - Albert Schweitzer
