For those of you who know me, or have read some of my work, you know that compassion has been at the center of what I have been examining for decades. I freely share this on the website www.CompassionSpace.com I am not trying to become famous, or get published in “peer reviewed” journals. All of that seems to me to have the potential to interfere with passing on a larger message. I have “asked” that I simply be given the opportunities to “pass it on” and to engage in discourse with people about the process. This is the main function of the website, and part of why I joined EONS.

Now in the past month many things have happened contributing to my absence from EONS, including some movement in the direction of what I have been “asking for”. Here is a list:
• On top of my regular neuromuscular disorder I got sick twice. More compassion training I guess. I will be seeing several doctors in December. I have needed more rest than usual.
• My computer also got sick (again). I think this was patience training, an important part of compassion.
• The end of the college semester is always a busy time for me, cutting into what little free time I had.
• I want to keep adding to the website, at least something every week, so people will return. That takes time.
• My church wants me to speak on compassion.
• The college is considering using compassion as a main platform for values teaching across the college. I have no idea where that path will lead.
• I have two students that I mentor in how to develop compassion and I am learning quite a bit from them.
• I have been communicating with three other Universities and sharing compassion research, which has expanded how I look at compassion.
• I am doing volunteer hospice work, and have had three people pass away. This has also shown me different aspects of compassion.

Those are the main things that have been taking up my time. But there is something else that has been consuming my mind. This has been the “Theory of Compassion Development” paper and all the ramifications attached to that paper. My wife says that when I get “caught up” in something that she just passes food under the door and leaves me alone. I have been the type of person who “disappears” into a project, and this theory has grabbed me and probably won’t let go for a while. It is so far reaching and its web stretches far and wide.

The theory covers all that I have written about over three decades and yet it is only a six page paper. But the theory also covers things I haven’t written about, and connections between things I haven’t written about. I can see the web of interconnections but I can’t yet fully describe them. That might not happen until after I have reviewed about 50 books on the website, and 100 journal articles. I am trying hard not to push myself, but I have a long history of doing just that when get an “insight”. But I can’t go at the speed I used to when I was healthier, which might be a good thing. When I was younger I ran around a lot and often ending up only a few steps from where I started. These days I contemplate more before expending energy.

In addition to everything above I also have a family, who rely on me as a stabilizing force to help keep things in balance.

Yes, I have asked for more opportunities to share discourse about compassion and I guess some of that is happening. I do thank all those in EONS who have provided support along the way. I truly believe that anyone who seeks to be a strong voice for compassion needs support. In many ways it is a heroic journey.