In times of old, The Furies protected Mother Right. If a mother (or any woman) was harmed, The Furies swooped down and took their vengeance. They were one of the last vestiges of a world that existed before the patriarchy. When we feel righteous anger, it is The Furies who are calling out to us to make what is wrong right again.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Compassion 

If your circle of compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete. —Jack Kornfield

I needed to hear that today. And I heard it at Beyond the Fields We Know, one of my favorite stopping places. She has a nice essay about forgiveness and compassion. Self-immolation in all its forms is rarely a good idea. I know the person I am most often disgusted with is myself. Maybe it's time to lighten up on the old broad. On all the old broads. Young and old. Male and female. I grow happier as the time nears for my beloved to come home. I'm off to meet him. See. Now I love everyone. Even moiself.
Posted by: Kim Antieau / 7/05/2006 07:52:00 PM
2 comments

2 Comments:

It is not easy to have compassion for yourself, others, yes, but not for yourself. I believe it falls in the same catagory as loathing. Self loathing I have heard it described as a black bruise on your soul.

By Blogger Jamie, at 11:47 PM  

That's an apt description. It reminds me of an event we went to in New Mexico to listen to Clarissa Pinkola Estes talk about creativity.

She talked all day long. It was wonderful. She talked about hearing the roar—the roar that takes one off the path of the usual, the roar that helps us change the way we think. She talked about creativity being enhanced “when what is invisible is acknowledged."

We should not denigrate our intuitions, she said. Every creative act has fear. We should be ourselves because half the people aren’t going to like us no matter who we try to be, so why not be ourselves.

She sent out Women Who Run with the Wolves to publishers 47 times—three times to the publisher who finally published it. I think it was her abuela who told her that “discouragement is the devil’s only tool." When you don’t believe in yourself, when you don’t trust yourself or your intuition, it is a form of murder, she said. It is hard, it can be discouraging, to live a full creative life, but trying to stay safe is not the way.

By Blogger Kim Antieau, at 10:04 AM  

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