If you turn on the news, or just stick your head outside a window, you’ll see and hear the great hate debate that’s raging across the world. Red vs. Blue. Black vs. White. The list goes on and on and on.

Compassion is not a popular word these days. People are either good or bad.

But I would disagree. To take a phrase from the bible, no person is “without sin.”

I have done bad things. I have done things that are good. I am human. The problem these days is that we act as though everyone needs to be as perfect as they can be.

That’s just not true.

Major cities across the U.S. hundreds of murders take place each year. There is a rise in hate crimes. My government has put migrant children in cages, and several of those children have died from the flu.

I don’t know if it’s because of my upbringing or my INFJ personality type but I like to take a step back and see the bigger picture. Maybe it’s because I’m a fantasy and science fiction writer but I think of things this way: We all live on the same planet. If an asteroid hits us, or a horrible disease breaks out, we’re all going to die.

We’re all on the same pale blue dot. Astronimer Carl Sagan coined the term “pale blue dot” when scientists turned one of the Voyager spacecraft back at Earth and caught our tiny planet in a beam of sunlight. Sagan’s pale blue dot speech became famous and has lived on nearly 30 years after his death.

He wrote:

“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar,’ every ‘supreme leader,’ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”

Yet still, each day we kill, rape, and steal from each other all over the world. The complexities of why people cause harm to others are not as simple to understand. But violence typically comes due to power imbalance or in defense. Someone has more than others, feels oppressed, and lashes out. Or someone has power, exercises it on the powerless, and presses down.

Each of us has a decision to make each day. If you grew up in an alcoholic or dysfunctional home, you might have experienced violence first-hand. When under stress, your natural reaction might be to hit back (physically or emotionally).

Choosing compassion is not easy. Even my saying to be compassionate toward others might be too radical of a thought. (If your enemy is hurting you, turning the other cheek might seem saint-like and nearly impossible.)

But what if you take a simple step and practice compassion toward yourself?

A year ago, I took part in training and learned about the Loving Kindness meditation.

There are three parts to this meditation:

1. Send compassion, health, and peace toward yourself.

2. Send compassion, health, and peace toward a neutral person/enemy.

3. Send compassion, health, and peace out toward the world

For today, try saying these phrases five times to yourself each day:

May I be happy
May I be healthy
May I be peaceful
May I live with ease

It only takes a minute or two, but you’re setting the intention to focus on compassion toward yourself. Small steps get you to your destination.

I wish you the best in taking that first step.

Like what you’ve read? Be sure to check out my other posts in my Let Go and Be Free blog.