The echo of a pleasant sound, like the echo of a single kindness, casts ambient rings of pleasure around the conscious recipient. With resonance thus defined, let's consider empathy. Empathy (feeling with) -- unlike apathy (without feeling) or antipathy (contrary feeling) -- is the most defining characteristic of the human species and the one "that separates us from all other animals. That is to say, while anatomy includes us in the animal kingdom, our uniquely spiritual endowment challenges … [Read more...]

I had just moved in the spring of 1990, and after experiencing disappointment in another new romance, I decided that morning upon awakening to swear off men. As I sat up in bed, I noticed that there was a word floating mid-air in front of me. "OK," I thought, "if you guys float a word mid-air for me, then I know something really big is coming, so I had better pay attention." "Look at the word," I heard, so I proceeded to read it. "Relationship." I read aloud, from this illuminated word … [Read more...]

"Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relationships with other people." -- Arthur Schopenhauer What a dilemma for mankind! Since our very first breath, we are constantly seeking and experiencing relationships with other people on many levels -- with different expectations. Each experience will be either pleasurable or painful, and that is said to be determined by our own attitude and response to each relationship that we have. Ouch! That can be very hard to admit and come face to face … [Read more...]

Every relationship is an echo of the soul's relationship with Source, the foundation of existence and love. Existence as a finite being only happens in relationship to the Divine. Our relationships with each other reflect that reality. When we see the Divine in ourselves and others, we affirm our own existence. When we see others as of significance only in relationship to our own needs or wants, then we ultimately affirm the conditionality of our own existence. Such a relationship is not … [Read more...]