#QuarantineCompersion (18)

When emotions and experiences are mixed, happen in quick succession, or occur all together layered on top of each other, clarity about the distinct feelings that we are having can be distorted and confusing. It can be difficult to hear and harmonize with the different emotional chords playing in our hearts and in the hearts of others when so much is playing all at the same time, and we may find ourselves straining to parse the individual notes. Further, our joys and our sorrows may become altered and transformed by the ways that they come together in the music of our lives. What two or more emotions have you experienced this week as jumbled together, layered, or even fused?
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In response to the much-needed call for #COVIDCompassion, #MindfulHearts offers the sister chant of #QuarantineCompersion. The art and skill of understanding the suffering of others and feeling and acting on the impulse to lessen that suffering goes hand in hand with the art and skill of feeling and acting on the impulse to nourish joy everywhere. May we all have moments of joy that grow and extend through the times we live in and beyond.

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MindfulHearts retrospective.
On this day 2019.
On this day 2018.
Celebrating two years of daily cartoons.

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[image description: Two hearts with distressed expressions stand under multiple thought clouds. The main thought of the heart on the left is "What if I'm falling. in love while the world is falling apart?" The main thought of the heart on the right is "What if I feel relief and fear going back to normal?" The other thought bubbles are filled with images against a pale blue background. The images include a group of hearts and a spiral at the edges, and two more hearts in the middle, one of which is smiling and the other frowning below a rain cloud. Text reads: "Joy at the center of heartache can feel clouded and confusing." The hashtag "#QuarantineCompersion" appears at the border.]