Harvesting Compassion: Mike Valliant

Harvesting Compassion by Michael Valliant

It’s 70 degrees year-round. In our homes, we have done away with the seasons. We can change the thermostat and make it any temperature we want. Of course, we also have to pay the bill for that luxury when it comes due. But there is a good chance that we have fallen out of step with the world outside. And November is a good time to remember.

Whether you know it from Pete Seeger’s song “Turn, Turn, Turn” or from Ecclesiastes in the Bible, this is a passage, or lyrics, that many people are familiar with:

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to

rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)

November is a time for harvest. Watch squirrels and birds and things that live outside. Watch farmers and watermen; the seasons are changing, and it is time for new work. In the United States, November has gratitude and giving thanks built right into the end of it, as we gather around a table to give thanks. We won’t talk about Black Friday, which is as much a symptom of losing sight of what is important as anything, right on the heels of giving thanks for all we have.

This year, November is also a presidential election, which we will watch and can participate in, and in the scheme of things, the result doesn’t matter nearly as much as the people we allow ourselves to become after it is over.

Let’s talk about harvest. Harvest is a gathering of crops. And what have we planted this year? A quick look around might tell us: hatred, blaming and shaming those who don’t see things the way we do, self-righteousness, name-calling, all pointing toward the election and the direction we think the country needs to go in order to do and be better.

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And then it’s done. And whatever has happened, we need to move forward. But how do we do that after all that’s happened, all that’s been said, all that’s been done?

In a sermon this fall, Fr. Bill Ortt at Christ Church Easton was talking about justice and righteousness. And he said, “What does the righteousness of God look like in the world? It looks a lot like compassion.”

This isn’t a message you have to be religious to get your head or heart around. If we want a way forward together, compassion is something to look at.

I love that the Dalai Lama is on

Twitter. He tweets snippets of wisdom, of humanity, of compassion and peace. A few of his tweets this fall:

“As human beings we essentially belong to the same family and we have to think of each other as part of ‘us.’ To develop peace in the world, we have to educate people to understand that we are all the same in being human.”

“Honest concern for others is the key factor in improving our day to day lives. When you’re warmhearted, there is no room for anger, jealousy or insecurity. A calm mind and self-confidence are the basis for happy and peaceful relations with each other.”

“In our world today, everyone wants to live a happy life and indeed everyone has a right to a happy life. Yet we face problems, many of which are of our own making. If we look a little deeper, we may see that loving kindness is the key to our survival.”

The Dalai Lama turned 70 this year and is using social media to make sure new generations are able to hear his message of loving kindness.

All the major religions, which have been around for thousands of years, all point in the same direction: peace, compassion, our interconnectedness to each other and the world, and love. And all the ma-

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jor religions have also done some crappy things that can cloud our eyes from seeing what it looks like to harvest those things in our lives.

And that’s maybe one of the most encouraging aspects to harvesting compassion: it doesn’t take long to grow. Certainly, it grows larger and can become our very way of living over time, with practice and attention, but we can see a yield even at the very beginning. Even if we were sowing hatred and fear. It’s not too late to change. And the smiles and small acts of kindness we extend to others can come back to us tenfold.

So how do we start? We can listen. We can be open to other ways of thinking. We can lend a hand instead of crossing our arms. Mahatma Gandhi said, “The simplest acts of kindness are by far more powerful than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.” We would do well to start with simple acts of kindness.

Even our famous scientists today are on the same page when it comes to compassion. Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist who has made a name for himself by popularizing and making sense of scientific information for a broader public. He is the director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City.

“The problem, often not discovered until late in life, is that when you look for things in life like love, meaning, motivation, it implies they are sitting behind a tree or under a rock,” Tyson said. “The most successful people in life recognize, that in life they create their own love, they manufacture their own meaning, they generate their own motivation. For me, I am driven by two main philosophies, know more today about the world than I knew yesterday. And lessen the suffering of others. You’d be surprised how far that gets you.”

It’s not too late to give compassion a try. Instead of practicing outrage, we can practice kindness and empathy. November is a culmination of a year of upheaval that has led up to it. Regardless of what we have planted to this point, we can harvest compassion.

Michael Valliant is the Assistant for Adult Education and Newcomers Ministry at Christ Church Easton. He has worked for non-profi t organizations throughout Talbot County, including the Oxford Community Center, Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum and Academy Art Museum.