Being Compassionate Souls
Photo by Laurel Pepin
Dear Soul Friends,
It’s six forty five in the morning. Light is just beginning to shine on the horizon outside my office windows. The treetops in the distance are black outlines against the orangey, pink sky. It’s going to be a bright, bitter cold day. Eighteen inches of snow fell a few days ago. Sunlight will reflect off the white blanket of mother earth filling my house with light.
I love winter mornings like this. The cold, dark winter is harder now that I am older. But the light filling my house is a gift. It reminds me that even when I feel dispirited by the long cold nights and the hard news of our era, there is warmth. There is peace. There is stillness. It reminds me to look beyond the frozen vista and see its glistening beauty, even air bubbles trapped in ice. It reminds me to choose to be tenderhearted and kind. Holy Wonder is all around us.
The other day at a meeting a friend approached me and said that she enjoyed the letter published on January 18th titled Bumping into Beauty. The story of walking in a New Hampshire forest during a snowstorm reminded her of a hike she took while visiting the Grand Canyon. Someone had encouraged her to hike a trail but she did not know where she was going. Suddenly, the trail turned and she stood in front of a canyon, stunned by the beauty before her. As I listened, I told her I’d always considered the Grand Canyon a “thin space.” She gave me a quizzical look and I realized that she did not know the meaning of “thin space.” I told her I’d write about it.
Thin space is a term Celtic Christians coined for a place where heaven and earth merge and become one. Great Cathedrals and other religious monuments are thin spaces. When we enter them, we can feel a sense of presence and reverence. The devotion and prayers of the people throughout the centuries invited the energy of The Holy to dwell with them. That energy still greets us as we walk through the doors. Mother Earth is also a home for thin space. Mountaintops, canyons, forests, and gardens all provide places where we can feel Holy Presence intertwine with our own lives. Almost anywhere can be a thin space, including each of us. Whenever we greet each other with loving compassion, we share a thin space. Compassion is soul energy given by the Holy.
As soul people, we are born to be homes of compassion. Twelfth Century Christian Mystic Hildegard of Bingen wrote, “All living creatures are sparks from the radiation of God’s brilliance, emerging from God like rays of the sun.”
Take a minute to be quiet and still. Has there been a place or experience in your life where you encountered a thin space and entered into the heart of God? What did it feel like? How did it shape your understanding of who you are and how you want to care for others? Try to carry that feeling into your day.
May the blessing of light be upon you. Light within and light without.
Deep peace to you,
Susan
