Do you remember that feeling of early summer, walking around barefoot for the first few times of the year? It was a lot more painful than later in the summer, when your feet had developed calluses, but you could feel everything beneath your feet.
In a world that is often difficult and painful, how do you maintain an uncallused heart?
In times like these, it’s tempting to spend every available minute reading news, engaging in activist movements, etc. But it’s not healthy, and ultimately, not good for our causes. What helps me keep my balance, and a soft heart, is making it a practice to take time to enjoy things of beauty, things that make me laugh, and to do kind things for others.
Hello Margaret, I read your talk earlier and enjoyed it very much. I am presuming that both of us have contact with Unitarian-Universalism. Your comments are valuable to me. I see in another of my comments that I am one who is perhaps obsessing on daily news to an unnecessary degree. Perhaps, but I feel the need right now.
Was that the workshop from GA ’13 that is on the UUA website? The talk on “Defense Against the Dark Arts of Persuasion” for HFCW? Or the “Mid-Course Corrections”? In any case, I’m glad you liked it.
I think the amount of time we spend on news before it becomes unhelpful varies a lot from one individual to another. My tolerance level is probably lower than average.
I distinctly remember one summer near the Eastern shore when my family joined others at a cabin near the beach; walking to the water was so painful at the beginning but by week’s end my feet were TOUGH! I am trying to decide if I have allowed my heart to toughen too; sometimes I realize that I do not respond to a hurt of the heart with much sympathy. Responding to this needs action more than emotional response and I know that feeling empathy that lets me understand and internalize the sorrow and pain is the way to go. Using my prior experiences and letting myself imagine those pains lets me act to help soothe both others’ and my pains.