Cultivating Compassion For Those Who Have Held Us Captive.
Oh, my beloved.
You, with the fire in your eyes. You, with the back that will not be bent under oppression. You, with the song that will not be silenced.
Your fierce radiance humbles me with its power and beauty. Your words, your heart, your body are bursting with the power to change the world. Your fingertips sizzle with injustice afire to be alchemized into action.
And yet, I beg you to hold back, just for a moment. Not for me, but for the sake of your own heart.
I beg you, before you act, to have compassion for your captors.
You know of whom I speak. The wizened puppeteer who decides whether you qualify as human. The kindly tyrant who clipped your wings when you were young. The jealous critics who told you you weren’t good enough because they were too afraid to try.
Yes, you have been hurt, my beloved. You have been wounded. And your wounds, instead of weakening you, have made you stronger. Those wounds have cut away the parts of you that had grown numb, so that now you may feel more deeply.
Those who harmed you did not know. They did not know how precious, how sacred, how beautiful a temple they were defiling. And they did not know that your true heart — the essence of who you are — can never be harmed, never defiled, never broken.
And so I beg you, my beloved, to be true to your heart. Be true to your innermost nature. Be true to your essence, which is the essence of love, from which all things come and to which all things will return. Have compassion for your captors.
Have you ever felt the cold, slimy touch of fear upon your heart? Of course you have, my beloved, I know that you have.
Do you remember how fear makes you act? Have you felt in your body how, when you are afraid, you are removed from yourself? How you lose touch with your true heart and act only from the body, from the animal part of yourself?
Your captors feel that way every moment of their lives.
I do not ask you to excuse their actions. I do not ask you to forgive. And I certainly do not ask you to forget. I do ask you this:
Hold compassion in your heart for these frightened souls who have lost their way.
Your rage burns so brightly it could set the world on fire. But that fire will consume you completely. And oh, beloved, the world needs you so dearly, we cannot afford to lose you so soon.
What the world needs most is your shining heart, your radiant essence, your compassionate love.
It takes courage to survive. You have proven that time and again.
It takes even more courage to love.
*****
Pace Smith (The Pathfinding Coach) helps sensitive spiritual nonconformists live wild crazy meaningful lives. She’s also a teacher, a speaker, a writer, a Sufi dervish, a bi-poly-trans gamer geek, an open-source Reiki healer, and a tournament-level Dance Dance Revolution player. Download her free eBook to stop living on autopilot and start living the wholehearted, unconventional life you were meant to live.