Six New Things – Week of May 22, 2023
In this month of awareness around Mental Health, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, and Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage – to name a few – compassion is a tool and a worldview that supports healthy communities, congregations, families, individual others, and selves.
ONE
We can all learn to be a little gentler with ourselves – and maybe others – with It’s Okay: Being Kind to Yourself When Things Feel Hard (Bala Kids).
Bring these affirmations to the adult level with Sensual Faith: The Art of Coming Home to Your Body (Convergent) – ‘an invitation for women to discover a healthier approach to spirituality and sexuality that centers pleasure rather than shame’.
Broaden the compassion circle with We Heal Together: Rituals and Practices for Building Community and Connection (Shambhala), ‘a hopeful, wise, and practical guide to help us move into spaces of individual and collective healing, community, and relationship building…’
Find more resources on developing Faith, Love, Compassion, and Forgiveness in our lib guide.
TWO
Prepare mentors, teachers, and leaders to show more compassion with teens through Springtide Research’s The State of Gen Z: On-Demand Presentation, a 75-minute keynote presentation with downloadable Discussion Guides to help caring adults take action. Watch the trailer here.
Find more tips on developing Mental Health awareness and a healthy environment in our lib guide; find essential links and organizations for interventions in this week’s Daily Breath (see Tuesday).
THREE
The Compassionate Christianity Podcast runs the gamut in approaches to expanding compassion amongst and through Christian individuals and communities. Their interview with novelist Sophfronia Scott, author of the poignant Wild, Beautiful and Free, is one wonderful example.
FOUR
Create space for more wild and beautiful living with Chicken Scratch: Lessons on Living Creatively from a Flock of Hens (Broadleaf) – full of encouragement and practical advice for ’embracing your creative self and letting go of what holds you back’.
Shyness can hold all of us back. Sometimes Shy (Beaming) offers a ‘lyrical exploration of situational shyness’ and includes a free, downloadable educator’s guide which invites kids to consider ways they are both shy and bold in their own lives.
FIVE
‘It is only through awareness of death that we hasten to build the being we ought to be, ‘ writes Dr. Quintana Arantes, author of Death Is a Day Worth Living (Broadleaf) – a powerful invitation to be more compassionate with everyone as they die – and the conviction that doing so, ‘is a celebration of their life and humanity, and those of their caretakers’.
SIX
The arrival of a newborn can create chaos in any household. Celebrate and support more compassion at the beginning of life, and give Littles an opportunity to explore and express their feelings around a new sibling with Since the Baby Came (Waterbrook); encourage strong sibling bonds for adults with Sistering: The Art of Holding Close and Letting Go (Pilgrim).
Find more resources for Pastoral Care around Family Planning, Pregnancy, and Parenting, and Children & Families in our lib guides.
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Compassion – for self, for others, for communities and every individual – is the way toward healing divisions. May we be inspired and encouraged in becoming more compassionate souls!
