Eleventh Holy Night 2007-2008 ~ Passion & Compassion
JANUARY 4, 2008
Well...
This is one of the twelve polarities that I just could not get under... I get the different meanings of passion and compassion, and I just can not find them as polarities... so that is my dilemma, or polarity of this evening, I can't find the polarity in the prompt! Maybe some of you reading this, might shed light on what you see, different than me!
I did notice that compassion came up for me a lot today... Our power/electricity was out from the middle of last night, and throughout most of the day. I noticed how edgy I was... did I stock up on enough food? Were my parents OK? Do we have enough batteries? What if this goes on longer than 24 hours? What if the freezer food melts? And the icebox, all contents a gonner? Is the river going to flood, with houses destroyed and families displaced? I noticed an old pattern of how hard I am on myself. I also noticed that it had to do with my anxiety... where was my compassion for that anxiety???
I am quick to have compassion for others, but not for myself... it is quite a stretch for me to be compassionate to myself... Yet, I am aware that I am coming to recognize more frequently how hard I am on myself and to just relax into what is... and treat myself as I would another...
And since I'm on a roll with not exactly following this night's prompt... I don't always find passionate actions to be self centered. Just as I don't find compassion to always be about other... I have been involved in many activities, labyrinth building, art-making, graduate school studies, blogging, lovemaking, to name a few... where passion is a sharing between one or large groups of people, like a fine wine, and all involved contribute to something much bigger than the individuals involved, and it is passion with fire, excitement, and with different hearts beating together as one...
**[Eleventh Holy Night of Inner Christmas](http://www.innerchristmas.com/0711.html)**
with Lynn Jericho
**[Lynn's Blog on the Twelve Holy Nights of Inner Christmas](http://www.innerchristmas.libsyn.com/)**