The Challenge of Compassion and Forgiveness

... when you know you are right and they are ignorant, misguided, and wrong!

A Walk in the Neighborhood

"She leashed up the excited dog, finally giving in to his shiny black eyes gazing expectantly at her, brow furrowed, long snout resting attentively on her thigh as she attempted to finish perusing the newspaper. Why read it anyway, she thought? Nothing but bad news about how human beings, through ignorance, frustration, hunger, greed, misguided ethnic and religious ferver, hurt themselves and each other, individually and collectively, collaterally damaging the rest of God’s creatures and creations in the process.

As she pulled the door shut behind her, the dog tugged impatiently. She strode after the dog, noting once again his absence from beside her left foot, where a well-trained dog would gratefully place himself in his unceasing desire to please his mistress. Her dog, on the other hand, frantically surged ahead, sniffing mightily at the ground, the mailboxes, the bushes and trees, in his unending mission to search desperately for olfactory messages left by his canine neighbors. The dog trotted happily ahead of her past a series of modest, mostly mowed, sometimes edged, front yards, some, thank God, still with large leafy shade trees, cooling the neighborhood, filtering the air and water, offering habitat for birds, and, she repeated to herself as usual although she already knew all this and it was really her neighbors who ought to be listening to her, especially when someone periodically decided to cut down a perfectly healthy tree for no apparently reason except to perhaps to “tidy up” or “clear out,” reducing their ever-rising energy bills.

The dog stopped, squatted, and dropped several soft brown lumps on a particularly homogeneously green, yellow-flagged, chemically-treated, water-polluting, beneficial-creature-killing lawn. She pulled the plastic bag out of her pocket to pick it up, then smiled." (Copyright EvolvingSpirit 2008)

…

Here’s the spiritual issue. I meditate in order to practice non-doing, non-judging, just observing, feeling, listening, being, enjoying. Then I go out and walk the dogs in my quiet peaceful small town neighborhood. I see the little yellow flags “Beware of pesticide application.” Someone squirts herbicide or fertilizer, or sprays Roundup in the sidewalk cracks. Someone else starts up their leaf blower, or lawn mower, or edge trimmer, or hedge clippers. Why? To conform to someone’s artificial notion of what is attractive. Tidiness reduces habitat. I hear the whine of a chainsaw as someone cuts down a perfectly healthy mature tree – for what reason? To “clear out” the yard? To grow better grass (see: “green desert”)? To not have to pick up leaves in the fall? Instead of enjoying the still standing trees and the twitters and chirps of the few remaining birds, my inner voice mutters, no, she screams, “Ignorant morons! Don’t they realize they are polluting the air and the water, and killing the small creatures that eat other insects and pollinate plants?” This happens every day. Instead, I should simply be observing human behavior, not judging but forgiving their stupidity, and having confidence that Gaia will take care of herself. Sigh ...