Caitlin, You are being honest and not afraid to confront your worst fears of getting numb with too much feeling. The sage says compassion is feeling and realising another's misery with your heart open to their suffering, but somehow not let it consume you.
I do not yet know how to do that. I am not as honest as you to own and confront my fears that I am losing my caring; was ashamed that I no longer want see the daily carnage. The words itself were beginning to lose its impact, groping to put words to the pictures.
Then I stop myself and feels like shit - I remind myself that my feelings are minuscule, does not matter at all ,compared to the Palestinian mother holding her dead child, unable even to cry; the father weeping over the dead bodies of his family; the starving children with their battered pans waiting for gruel; the bewildered faces of little children with their amputated limbs; the body bags piling up - the indefatigable Palestinians giving them a fitting farewell.
When they are bearing such pain and grief who am I to worry about my feelings - then my heart thaws out and I become one with their suffering.
Caitlin, You are being honest and not afraid to confront your worst fears of getting numb with too much feeling. The sage says compassion is feeling and realising another's misery with your heart open to their suffering, but somehow not let it consume you.
I do not yet know how to do that. I am not as honest as you to own and confront my fears that I am losing my caring; was ashamed that I no longer want see the daily carnage. The words itself were beginning to lose its impact, groping to put words to the pictures.
Then I stop myself and feels like shit - I remind myself that my feelings are minuscule, does not matter at all ,compared to the Palestinian mother holding her dead child, unable even to cry; the father weeping over the dead bodies of his family; the starving children with their battered pans waiting for gruel; the bewildered faces of little children with their amputated limbs; the body bags piling up - the indefatigable Palestinians giving them a fitting farewell.
When they are bearing such pain and grief who am I to worry about my feelings - then my heart thaws out and I become one with their suffering.
That last line…