Neil Gaiman ends his poem “What You Need To Be Warm” with the verse:
Sometimes it only takes a stranger, in a dark place,
to hold out a badly-knitted scarf, to offer a kind word….
….to make us warm in the coldest season.
Corinna Luyken ends her soul-warming illustration-book, “my heart” with these words:
My heart is a shadow,
a light, and a guide.
Closed or open….
get to decide.
In the section of the “Mahabharata” (translated by Bibek Debroy) titled Markandeya Samasya Parva, we read a person (who makes his living selling deer and buffalo meat) explain what dharma is to a previously conceited Brahmana, Koushika. Among the traits essential to a good life, this person says, is an attitude of “constant compassion towards all beings.”
Peace 🙂
