People are Talking

At Sunday's wonderful and uplifting "All my Relations" event at St Patrick's Church, Silver Song ended the ceremony
with the following:

"People are talking about CAN. You may not know this, but in our native communities, people are really talking about CAN and the work that it is doing and will do."

I really appreciated Silver Song's comments as it made me think of all of the unseen ways in which true compassionate work touches people's lives. Even the smallest of compassionate gestures and actions can have big ramifications, often unseen as they happen "down the line." From my own experience, I have seen this effect in my life countless times from people who inspired me in ways unknown to them but very meaningful to me.

Another example: at the reception following Sunday's service, Monica came over to me and introduced a couple of Tibetan monks who were in attendance. She explained that through the CAN network she had connected with a woman whose dying wish was to have a couple of Tibetan monks present during the time of her passing. Monica connected them to her and they were able to be by her side as she passed on. As you can imagine, I was very, very moved by this example of compassionate action at its most noble and significant.

One more: a visiting Fullbright Scholar from Indonesia with an interfaith focus came over at the same reception and noted that she hadn't quite known how to approach interfaith activities from a compassionate action perspective. But after seeing it modeled in full evidence at the service, she told me that as she prepares to return to Indonesia, she will replicate the event she saw here over there. Think of all of the people in Jakarta that CAN may now be connecting with, in heart and spirit!

And finally, I want to thank Lora-Ellen McKinney and Jon Ramer, along with a fleet of volunteers, who made their own compassionate practice manifest through the careful, loving planning they undertook for sunday's service. It was truly inspiring and exquisitely planned.

So, let's all work on practicing more "random" acts of Compassion! You may never know where the fruits of your compassion will arise, but they will arise...