In so many ways we are the same. In so many ways we are so radically different from one another. What is downright fascinating is that we all suffer, we all know that we all suffer and yet most of us are still unable to connect to the suffering of others.

In fact, we make our suffering about others…the whole, ‘you’re doing this to me’ thing. Suffering is an inevitable part of being human, that our suffering comes from each other is both undeniably true and a complete illusion.

There is so much that wants to be said about compassion, about expanding our perspectives to understand those of others, especially when they are in conflict with our own.

I read a quote on a friend’s facebook page the other day that I had not heard before. It struck me so deeply that I read it to my father, we both welled up a little and I decided that rather than go into a post all about the nuances of what’s needed for each other in this world, I would leave you with this quote, because it simply says what takes most of us a lifetime to understand, if we ever do at all.

“If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.”
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow