Connect with Connection on May 20th!

Welcome to our 4th Link up! This month our theme is Connection, including Reconnection or Reconciliation.

If you have written any post about connection this month, you are welcome to add it to our link up – to a maximum of three. You’ll find the button to take you to the link up at the bottom of this post.

LET’S FILL THE WORLD WITH COMPASSION AND CONNECTION!!

What does connection mean to you? How can we create compassion and connection in this world?
Here’s what a few famous people had to say about it.

Centuries ago, John Donne wrote this poem, which is still loved by many of us:

No Man is an Island

No man is an island entire of itself;

every man is a piece of the continent,

a part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less,

as well as if a promontory were,

as well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own were;

any man’s death diminishes me,

because I am involved in mankind.

And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;

it tolls for thee.

William James:

We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep.

Mahatma Gandhi:

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
Whenever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love.
No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive.

John Lennon:

A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.

Martin Luther King Jr:

It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one destiny, affects all indirectly.

Maya Angelou:

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.

Mother Teresa:
If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.

Steve Jobs:

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it; they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.

Brené Brown:

I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship

Byron Katie:

Our parents, our children, our spouses, and our friends will continue to press every button we have, until we realize what it is that we don’t want to know about ourselves, yet. They will point us to our freedom every time.

We began with a poem, and so we’ll end with one too. This one is by is also centuries old and is by the Sufi poet Rumi:

THE GUEST HOUSE

This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes

as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture, still,

treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out

for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

meet them at the door laughing

and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes,

because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond.

This month, 1000 Voices Speak for Compassion continues to work toward spreading compassion with a particular focus on connection, including reconciliation.

Here’s how to get involved:

Write a post relevant to this month’s focus CONNECTION and add it to the link-up right here by clicking the blue button below.

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