Is It Ever Okay to Disengage When the World Overwhelms Us?

Is It Ever Okay to Disengage When the World Overwhelms Us?

Maybe that sounds apathetic. Selfish, even. But there’s a difference between willful ignorance and being intentional about taking a step back at times. Being aware of social issues is important, but so is taking care of ourselves. Compassion is fundamental to the human experience, but let’s not confuse empathy with martyrdom.

We can’t avoid or hide. Sometimes, detaching ourselves from distressing news is less about putting up a wall and more about deliberately focusing on the good.

Read More

What Justin Trudeau (Accidentally) Taught Us About Being Human

What Justin Trudeau (Accidentally) Taught Us About Being Human

Things start falling apart when we discover that those “good people” in the non-profit world have actions that are antithetical to the mission of the organization.  When they pay lip service and wear façades in order to be the person they want the world to see.  The public face versus the private face.  The idealized self versus the real self.

Read More

How Effective are Awareness Campaigns in the Fight against Human Trafficking?

How Effective are Awareness Campaigns in the Fight against Human Trafficking?

Compassion can be hard—and maybe that’s why we detach ourselves in the first place. I wonder if we limit ourselves to single-day awareness campaigns because it’s as much as we can handle. People who are learning about human trafficking for the first time are heartbroken and often can’t spare too much energy on it. Even veteran service providers are susceptible to compassion fatigue and burnout.

How do we approach these kinds of tough issues more sustainably, instead of expending all our energy at once?

Read More

Grieving Oppression, Celebrating Strength: Reflections on International Women’s Day

Grieving Oppression, Celebrating Strength: Reflections on International Women’s Day

Do you know why else it matters that we shine the spotlight on women today, International Women's Day? Because women are more than “victims”. Women are powerful. Despite the complex intersectionality of gender, race, economics, culture, and politics that perpetuates systemic oppression, women have still surpassed the obstacles to make enormous contributions to the world.

Read More

Good News About Creativity (Review of Ken Wytsma's Latest Book)

Good News About Creativity (Review of Ken Wytsma's Latest Book)

I’d always seen creativity as a finite resource.  Something with limits.  Something you use up, like gas in a tank—except that once it’s been consumed, you can’t easily replenish your supply. There aren’t any fuel tanks of creativity dotted along the highway to fill up at when you’re running low. You either have it or you don’t.

Commodifying creativity has been problematic for me.  My “creative spurts” tend to be accompanied by a sense of panic, because I never know how long the creativity will linger for this time—maybe the day if I’m lucky, maybe the hour.  I’d exhaust myself trying to make the most of it while I was on a roll, because I figured my crash was bound to come at any minute.

Read More

The Secret Ingredient to a Great Love Story

The Secret Ingredient to a Great Love Story

For the average person, regardless of religious belief or vocation, being compassionate to oneself doesn’t come naturally. Sometimes—even a lot of the time—it’s easier to love others than to love ourselves. And that’s because we’re unavoidably aware of our own flaws and fears and failures. We live everyday with the qualities we deem to be unlovable. We know the lousy things we’re capable of doing, the horrible things that cross our mind that we hide from others. We see the bad in us and the good in others.  

Read More

Suffering is Not Your Duty

Suffering is Not Your Duty

Compassionate people know that resilience is a practice, not a natural gift. They learn how to give themselves grace—that the burdens of the world are not theirs to carry. They practice self-compassion, know that battling against the darkness doesn’t eliminate them from living in the light. They believe they are enough as they are, even without the prideful demeanour that uses self-sacrifice as a badge of honour.

Read More