Spotlight on Changing Places

In this short series to date, all the blogs I've shown the spotlight on are written by males. In this case, I'm going to feature one of the many quality female writers. Donna Woodka is the blogger behind Changing Places and I have followed her blog for quite some time. She's the person who first introduced me to 365 Tao: Daily Meditations by Deng Ming-Dao and she utilizes his writings often as a springboard.

She doesn't post as frequently on her blog as she used to and she explains as much in her About snippet.

Changing Places is about the process of creating and opening up to change. My current interests include spiritual change, business change management, cultural change, artistic change, Tao Te Ching (The Way of Change), interpersonal and relationship change, and lifestyle change. It is also my personal blog, so my own life changes get top billing. The change in social media means a lot of my activity is now on Facebook, Google Reader and Twitter, so follow me there to see more.

Still, while the blogging frequency itself has been diminished, the quality of her writing has not! For example, on the last day of May, she reposted a wonderful piece on Compassion. In it she wrote,

My greatest problem with becoming truly compassionate is letting go of my own ego. I can be compassionate towards others, but I make the mistake of expecting compassion in return. I need to learn to accept that others are not always compassionate, that they will not show me the same courtesy that I show to them, and be ok with that.I forgive others for their transgressions towards me, but others have not forgiven me, and yet, I must still feel compassion for them. My sadness these days is that they cannot open their own hearts enough to forgive, cannot let go of their prejudices. But, Tao teaches acceptance, and acceptance of others own hardness is one of the most difficult things to feel compassion towards.

It is the problem I see in America today. Those who claim compassion also shout for war, and the death penalty, and intolerance of others actions. How can they be like this? If they believe in compassion, they must feel it towards all others, not just those that agree with them and that they like, or those who they see as thinking the same way they do and believing in the same religion. For the sake of their version of heaven, they are willing to put the rest of us in hell. That is not compassion, that is hypocrisy.

And yet…. I must show compassion for them, and not judge them, and understand them and care about them in spite of how they act. This is difficult, but it must be done. Otherwise, I become the hypocrite that I detest.

Compassion, true compassion, is indeed a difficult thing, until we accept that all are one.

See what I mean? You can't go wrong whether you visit her blog, Facebook page or Twitter feed.

This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.