Compassion is Everywhere Jarred from a reverie, I do a double take and ask to pull over. There she is, Quan Yin, Kannon, Avalokiteshvara, on a small factory lot: She of Compassion, who feels and absorbs the wailings of a world in pain and suffering, who vows to remain here, among us, until all this pain is eradicated. She calls out like a beacon on an ordinary countryside road grey on grey, brightening the very real world around her. She reminds me: I, compassion, am everywhere; do not wait until the perfect time and place to find me. Do not wait for ideal conditions, when everything is poised to take flight. Look at where I am: placed by the side of the road by an artisan, perhaps the most beautiful version of who I can be right here, right now. Carved from human hands, but this is not what you see, because we know the transcendent beauty that comes from hope and aspiration; we feel in our bones what is possible and so beauty comes to find us. Let us be nourished by the wisdom we ...
Women's Spiritual Poetry