What Is Missing?

What is Missing?

Have you ever wondered why so many of us in our society make choices that are bad for our health, the environment, for society, and definitely for the animals? How could so many of us be so wrong?! Is there one ingredient, one quality, that could pull it all together for us?

If we look closely, we see the missing ingredient is compassion. Certainly, most people claim to possess it. We all may talk about it. However, with any scrutiny at all, we see that, as a society, our values, our actions, and our everyday lives belie our claim.

How could true compassion cheer for war and the killing of innocent women and children? How could true compassion routinely slaughter and torture the defenseless animals? How could compassion poison and destroy our environment? How could it use all the world's resources in our own lifetime so that our children and grandchildren will have nothing left but a barren shell of planet?

Compassion is the right hand of Love. Why are these sacred values missing in our society and our hearts? Is it because we have been conditioned since birth to put our own wants, desires, pleasures and bank accounts ahead of what is good for others, and unquestionably what is good for Earth and the animals? Our lives are completely centered on the "Me".

Love and Compassion, on the other hand, think outside the self. Their focus is on what we can give---not what we can get. Self-centeredness is always looking to get as much as it can and to give as little as possible. "What's in it for me?" is what it is always ready to ask. How can such a person form a lasting relationship with anything… or anyone? True Love, on the other hand, finds joy in giving and, in any relationship, thinks nothing of giving more than it gets.

As human beings, we have choice. We have free will. We have the ability to choose Love over personal gain. Thankfully, every day gives us a new opportunity to try again, to start over, to do what is right. It is a Sacred Gift that the moment we choose Love over the "Me", we will find a whole new world of harmony and joy has opened to us.