The Compassion of Not So Different

I build a bridge not with my hands but with my heart. Every moment is an opportunity to place another tile of empathy, compassion, and peace. Each tile is a bit of my spirit reaching through the murk shooting an arc of light from my heart to yours. And, in that instant of connection, you and I, we are not so different. Our compassionate hearts sync, beating as one.

Heart to heart our compassion joined flares across the bridge opening us to what is, what might be. The illusion burns away. The obvious suffering become ash. We are empaths slipping underneath the charred unevenness to find the festering, embedded suffering that remains. Our compassion is a soothing balm that calms the fierce burns that suffering wrought. We bring peace to ourselves and calm the uncertain world.

Connection forged through the fire of co-compassion, our lights burn brighter and brighter. Together our collective white hot embers sear a path into the uncertainty of the world. We cannot stop at one alleviation of suffering. The beat of our compassionate hearts urges us on and on and on. Why stop when there is so much suffering that we can tame?

Night turns to day. Lingering illusions are revealed; suffering is pulled up by its roots. For an instant, the uncertainty throbs a bit less. Calm resonates in our being. We share this calm knowing that as long as our hearts beat, we will be emissaries of compassion. As sharers of compassion, we are not so different, you and I.

We are connected, you and I. These bridges of ours arc across the chasm of illusion. When we are out of sync with one another, we ignore our connection thus amplifying the suffering. Aware, we work together to create an arc of compassion that brings peace. To be out of sync or to work together — individual and collective choices that we make in each moment of every day. Our awareness, our choice. And, the choosing makes all the difference in the world.

We are not so different, you and I. Both of our hearts beat the same tattoo of life. When they beat in the sync of compassion, we are the power that changes the world. Let’s be compassion and bring transformation to ourselves and the world.

Vanessa F. Hurst, ms, is a Neural Synchrony™ facilitator, professional speaker, and author who weaves her inner wisdom into all she touches. Her books are A Constellation of Connections: Contemplative Relationships and Engaging Compassion Through Intent & Action. Vanessa assists clients in navigating their life paths with intuition. Contact Vanessa @ vanessa@intentandaction.com for keynotes, programs, and consultations.

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Twitter: @fyrserpent / ©2018

A Bright Fiery Spark Twining A Message of Love

Love twines and loops and twists. It connects us to one and the other like a macramed Celtic knot. We never know where love ends or begins. It just is a bright fiery spark that burns along a fiber optic strand through my soul connecting me to you. 

I do not need to know your hopes and dreams, your sorrows and suffering, to love you. All I need is the resonance of your smile to jangle me awake to the inner knowing that you and I, we are not so different. It fact, when we strip away the small stuff, our spark’s glow with the same sacred ember. That ember pulses with love. 

Love brought us into being. Why else would the Creator carve off a piece of Itself, hold the burning ember in the palm of Its hand, and gently blow the spark into each of our spirits? At our conception this spark ignited our soul into being. Within each of us echoes the love of the sacred.

What greater love is there than to be gifted with a piece of the sacred? We carry this eternal flame of love with us through lifetimes and beyond. What greater responsibility do we have than to share that love with one another? Flame to flame we tell one another, “you matter."

When I look at you, I see the physical, converse with the mental, commune with the emotional, all the while feeling the warm of your divine spark running through the strand that connects us. I feel love. I hope you feel mine. 

No matter how much I may suffer — no matter how much you suffer — when my divine spark touches yours or yours touches mine, we explode in a flash fire of compassion. Love is powered by this compassion. Each compassionate act draws us further along the path of lovingkindness as our love journeys into the great unknown. 

We are not really so different, you and I. Deep inside at the core of each being glows an ember — lighting the way, reminding us that we are Creation. Pieces of a fiery puzzle that when joined together create a community of gratitude. And, gratitude when shared by an individual, when offer through community, has the power to change everything.

Believe in the power of love. Our belief combined with our intent and lived through our actions builds a light arc across the abyss of othering that transcends differences. We are not so different, you and I. Let’s join our lights to guide our path into that knowing. Let’s be gratitude personified. 

Vanessa F. Hurst, ms, is a Neural Synchrony™ facilitator, professional speaker, and author who weaves her inner wisdom into all she touches. Her books are A Constellation of Connections: Contemplative Relationships and Engaging Compassion Through Intent & Action. Vanessa assists clients in navigating their life paths with intuition. Contact Vanessa @ vanessa@intentandaction.com for keynotes, programs, and consultations.

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Twitter: @fyrserpent / ©2018

Compassion & the Journey with Imperfection

There is a calm settling into the world. It is an eager anticipation, a welcoming of who we really are and a diminishing of who we struggle not to be. In the calm, all sorts of stuff floats to the top of our awareness. Some of it we celebrate it — that which truly reflects who we are. Other debris we grimace thinking, “how could that have come from us?”

In the flotsam we recognize the treasures and debris of our journey. Through the calm, we identify how we do not always show our best self. We own the hurt that we have caused and grieve the resulting suffering. Even as we acknowledge that being hurtful, causing suffering, is not who we are, we may never have the curious daring to address the hurt directly. 

But we have the courage to build upon our treasures as we vow to change the way we react to the world. We shift our words, actions, and even thoughts to better reflect who we are. We are determined to become a truer image of our best self. In doing so, we clear the flotsam of hurt and suffering from our life and the lives of others. 

Maybe you are thinking, I don’t want to go through the flotsam field of hurt and suffering. Our passage though it is inevitable on this journey we call life. While we have epiphany moments in which we touch our true self and are enlightened, most of the time we spend meeting our challenges, learning our life lessons, and being the best person we can be in that moment. It is inevitable that we lose awareness and create flotsam.

Our authentic intent to be a emissary of compassion is all that is required on the journey thorough flotsam. That intent is enough to lead us through the debris to our true self. This does not mean that we can stop acknowledging when we have caused suffering in our self or another. We cannot stop acknowledging our imperfections. We must find ways to minimize their impact and the resulting suffering. 

So, we accept responsibility for our actions, words, and thoughts. We no longer blame others for who we are. We own our authenticity and our imperfections. In fact, our imperfections serve as springboards into the next compassionate step on the journey. And, that step, when taken, brings us to a balance point. 

The balance point offers a panoramic view of how our actions, reactions, and responses impact our self and those around us. Once in balance, we better recognize when we move out of alignment and into a place of suffering. With awareness we take strides to move back into balance. With this awareness comes the trust that we hear the voice of our inner wisdom and respond with it. We are an authentic presence of compassion in the world.  

Vanessa F. Hurst, ms, is a Neural Synchrony™ facilitator, professional speaker, and author who weaves her inner wisdom into all she touches. Her books are A Constellation of Connections: Contemplative Relationships and Engaging Compassion Through Intent & Action. Vanessa assists clients in navigating their life paths with intuition. Contact Vanessa @ vanessa@intentandaction.com for keynotes, programs, and consultations.

Website / LinkedIn Profile / Facebook / 

Twitter: @fyrserpent / ©2018

Compassion & the Good Person

Fear. It seems to be everywhere these days as  it wraps us in its cold embrace. Although the sun of hope may be shining, we cannot feel its warmth for we are wrapped in layer upon layer of dread. We may close the blinds and hunker down convinced that if we ignore the fear, it will go away. But, it doesn’t. Instead we quiver in fear’s embrace.

What can we do to release the paralysis of fear? How can we move from the darkness even as we feel our spark of hope sputter and flutter? We begin by acknowledging that we may be blind to possibilities, deaf to opportunity, and mute to our longings for hope. 

But, within each of us is a kernel, no matter how small, of belief that this, too, shall pass and life will once again be filled with the warmth of hope. We live in awareness of possibility unfolding in the moment. We do not expect something to flare across the darkness and reignite our spark. We anticipate that it will happen. 

My story is simple one. I honestly attempt to live a life of compassion — to do good not expecting a return, but anticipating that the beauty of the world is revealed again and again. Unfortunately that does not always happen until it does. 

In a moment of despair, I had an unexpected conversation with a woman. What she told me had me wondering how she could have know the intimacies of a phone conversation. How did she know who I was talking to? I wondered if she were more angel than human. Then, I realized that I could argue with myself about ethereal vs human messenger or I could focus on the message. 

As I helped her with the mundane task of choosing a concealer, she looked me in the eye and said, “You are a good person. I remember you.” Then she recounted a time in which I had a phone conversation with a coworker who was frustrated. She said that I reminded my coworker that it was just a job and that we were #inthistogether. She echoed a phrase I use over and over again.

Although I cannot recall this exact interaction this woman recounted, in her words I felt a spark of hope arcing across a fear-filled expanse of nothingness. It a burst of light, I saw where my ember cowered. As she reminded me, “You are a good person,” my spark exploded with hope. And, then she took her concealer and was gone. 

In the end it doesn’t matter if she was an angel or a human or a bit of both. She was an igniter of light in the encroaching dark. She stood witness and held space, so I could find the way back to my own glowing spark.

Fear may encroach. Darkness may overwhelm, but as long as we are #inthistogether, the dark will never overcome. Our light never goes out. It waits silently for the power of compassion to remind us who we are.

May you be the good person who reminds another of their light. May you be reminded of your own light. And, may  your light shine brightly as compassion’s presence in a scary world. 

Vanessa F. Hurst, ms, is a Neural Synchrony™ facilitator, professional speaker, and author who weaves her inner wisdom into all she touches. Her books are A Constellation of Connections: Contemplative Relationships and Engaging Compassion Through Intent & Action. Vanessa assists clients in navigating their life paths with intuition. Contact Vanessa @ vanessa@intentandaction.com for keynotes, programs, and consultations.

Website / LinkedIn Profile / Facebook / 

Twitter: @fyrserpent / ©2018