~One Soul~

  Today, while I was walking my dog Maria, a man reached out to pet her.  As he petted her he said: "Hello Rufus, I miss you!" We smiled at each other and walked away. After a few steps I realized it was a reunion, and I turned around and said what he must have known: "All dogs have one soul."

Jerk. Not!

   A teacher recently said something cold and abrasive to one of my daughters. She came out of school that day saying she didn't want to continue with a particular activity. I asked her why? Tears tumbled down her cheeks, as she explained to me what happened. I comforted her and said the first thing that popped into my brain: "Just because you're an adult, doesn't mean you can't act like a jerk!"

   All I could think of was how could someone who is trained and paid to serve, nurture and educate children behave in such a manner without realizing it? How could this teacher turn away from her pain? In my mind I made the connection that in turning away from her pain, he was also turning away from his own. To be able to offer compassion to someone else, you must first be able to give it to yourself.

   There isn't much else to say after that, except... as I was writing the above paragraph this said teacher called me on the phone to speak to me about my daughter. Though his story differed from hers, his soft tone of concern communicated what he could not say, but I heard. His reaching out made all the difference. I suddenly felt relief from this nudge of synchronicity and the sense that something unseen was interconnecting us all. Then I thought, now I can tell my daughter: "Just because someone acts like a jerk, doesn't mean they can't say they're sorry! And there are many ways to 'say' you're sorry."