Recently in a workshop Rev Val and I were facilitating someone asked "is there a difference between compassion and empathy?" This got me thinking. So often we collapse distinctions losing the nuances and individual meanings of the terms and words we used to describe and explain life. This can cause confusion and mis-communication. We speak assuming that the listener has the same understanding of the words and ideas we are expressing. I know many times, more then I would like to admit, I have found myself in conflict and arguments with someone when really all that was needed was a clarification of the words and the meaning being expressed.

          With that in mind as we continue our series on compassion and empathy let me clarify the terms and un-collapse the distinction between the two. Compassion, from my perspective, is something we do while empathy is a state of mind and a way of being. We act in a compassionate manner towards others and ourselves but we engage people from a consciousness of empathy, trying to understand the others point of view. The old adage to walk a mile in the others shoes come to mind. Or St Francis comes to mind, "seek first to understand rather than be understood."

          When we are empathetic our relationship and my way of seeing and being with others shifts. When we are empathetic we ask the question "what do you need or require" empowering the other and seeing them as whole experiencing a temporary condition but fully capable of expressing their needs and desires. We see beyond the conditions to the deeper truth of the others wholeness and Divinity. I shift my actions and my consciousness from sympathy, poor you, to empathy, how can I be of service. To deepen our awareness and consciousness of compassion and empathy Rev Val and I will facilitate a workshop of Sunday afternoon. Hope you can join us.

Please join us this Sunday as Rev Val explores the idea "the heart of compassion." Special music will be provided by Carly Johnson. Carly generously stepped in at the last minute as the Silly Girls had a family emergency and had to go out of town. Dottie Russell will provide the meditation.