The Key

So I've been feeling quite disheartened recently. It's been a few week of up's and down's. Along with my own inner turmoil, I've been helping to care for a very close friend who has recently had a cancerous brain tumour removed, and since suffered a stroke due to a brain bleed. This has left him paralysed on his left side, unable to do the things he always took for granted. He's been feeling trapped and guilty. Guilty that his beautiful wife has to care for him. Guilty for needing to rely on others. Trapped by his body, and by his disease. One thing it has not paralysed is his giving, caring and loving nature, and certainly not his sense of humour. He is one mighty positive person, and a lot of people could learn great things from this man.

He is most certainly not my "down" part of the week. If anything, every time I hug him goodbye, I feel happier inside just knowing he truly appreciates that I am helping him and also because I know he will survive this disease.

The down part lately has been the light bulb moments afterwards. Those moments I sit back and think "Why don't more friends help one another in this way?", or "Why do people run from others when they need them most?"

I have really struggled to comprehend why so many people in my life turned away from me when I needed them most. It has somewhat stopped my healing process because I just didn't know how to accept that people were ok with treating others that way. I had certain expectations of people in my life. I expected them to want to care for me and ask me the questions that nobody else would. My expectations were in vain. On an up side, some people who I least expected to care for me, did. That was hard to accept for some time, but I slowly learned to let the barriers down.

I needed to figure out my key to life. I've asked for many years "Who am I? Why am I here?" in the hope of an answer to just appear out of thin air. I wanted to know why I had suffered so much loss in such a short amount of time. I wanted to know why I have suffered with illness my entire life.

One word. One word is the key to my existence.

Compassion

Compassion is a virtue - one in which the emotional capacities of empathy and sympathy (for the suffering of others) are regarded as a part of love itself, and a cornerstone of greater social interconnection and humanism - foundational to the highest principles in philosophy, society, and personhood. There is an aspect of compassion which regards a quantitative dimension, such that individual's compassion is often given a property of "depth", "vigour", or "passion". More vigorous than empathy, the feeling commonly gives a rise to an active desire to alleviate another's suffering.

Compassion cannot be taught. It has to be learned on one's own journey.

To express my compassion to others, I am starting the production of my Memory Frames. These will be hand made by myself, to express my love and compassion for others who are suffering, whether it be emotional or physical suffering.

I am making peace with my inner turmoil. I am learning to accept that people can't always be who we want them to be. This is not their fault. It simply means they are on a different journey than us. Everyone's journey is unique and for this reason we must be kind to one another.

I have my friend with cancer to thank for my understanding of my journey. So, Thank You J.O.

Love & Light xo