wilderness of compassion

What is my new desert?  The name of it is compassion.  There is no wilderness so terrible, so beautiful, so arid and so fruitful as the wilderness of compassion.  It is the only desert that shall truly flourish like the lily.  It shall become a pool; it shall bud forth and blossom and rejoice with joy.  It is in the desert of compassion that the thirsty land turns into springs of water and the poor possess all things. [2]

                     Thomas Merton, Entering the Silence: Becoming a Monk and Writer, Ed.                              Jonathan Montaldo (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1995) 463.

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I live in a desert

Really, I do

Ok, its HIGH desert

Which means it has a different kind of beauty

than other kinds of deserts

it is not full of sand

it is not totally barren

more rocks, and sagebrush

and juniper

and even mountains

but still the rains are infrequent

the dry spells long

I have been in many deserts

The Sahara with is dunes

The solid brown, rocky rubble of he Sinai

The rolling sage of the great basin (where I grew up)

And now the deceptive “kind of” desert

Of mountains and winding waters

And the desert is a special place

For in the openness

And the starkness

You come face to face with

Yourself

the noise is gone

the outside distractions are few

but the inside distractions

are many

in the desert my soul roils

I am confronted

Challenged

And I change,

Hopefully, I change

Grow

Blossom

Things do blossom in the desert

Sometime the deserts that confront us

Are not physical

Compassion can be a desert

Being in that empty arid place

That feels so empty and barren

Because you don’t want to be there

Because you want to be in the lush

Jungle of resentment

And anger

Because you want avoid

And protect (one’s self)

And not see

Not feel

Not ache for the pain of the other

Of the world

ah but when the spring of living water

gushes

and true compassion comes

one’s soul blossoms

and one opens up

to the freshness

the hope

the joy

the love

that comes from above

there are many deserts

not just compassion

illness, I suspect

forgiveness, perhaps

generosity

welcome

there are so many barren places

difficult, hard places

which, when watered

by Sacred

provide us with the opportunity

to blossom

if we will receive water from those hard places

and manna from on high

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The desert and the parched land will be glad;

    the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.

Like the crocus,  it will burst into bloom;

    it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.  (Isaiah 35)